<p>This study addresses the multi-bus dispatching and boarding management problem for a ring-shaped structured bus transport system, where the dispatching of multiple buses is allowed and incorporates volume dynamics on bus stops and buses. A mathematical model of this problem aims to minimize the waiting time of passengers and space in buses during bus service operations. In the literature, the solution to this problem is obtained using a commercial solver named GUROBI, which suffers from the issue of computational inefficiency while solving the large scale of this problem. To tackle this computational inefficiency challenge and to provide a realistic solution methodology, this paper develops three advanced metaheuristic algorithms based on the sine cosine algorithm, grey wolf optimizer, and harmony search algorithm. These algorithms are developed by embedding a search strategy to tackle the binary and integer variables of the problem, and a simple constraint handling scheme to handle a large number of linear and non-linear constraints of the problem. To validate the performance of the proposed algorithms, eight different case studies are conducted, where the number of stops, buses, and prediction horizons are varied to analyze the computational efficiency of the proposed algorithms. Performance comparison of algorithms indicates that the proposed metaheuristic based on the harmony search algorithm can resolve the computational inefficiency issue comparatively more effectively, especially for large scales, compared to the other algorithms and commercial solvers. Therefore, beyond the methodological contributions, this study highlights the potential applications of the proposed enhanced versions of the metaheuristic algorithms in improving the planning for real-world urban bus transport by reducing passengers’ waiting times and enhancing overall service reliability.</p>