Urban metro systems are subject to recurring service disruption for various reasons, such as mechanical or electrical failure, adverse weather, or other accidents. In recent years, studies on metro ...networks have attracted increasing attention because the consequence of operational accidents is barely affordable. This study proposes to measure the metro network vulnerability from the perspective of line operation by taking the Shanghai metro network as a case study. As opposed to previous studies that focused largely on disruption of important nodes or links, this study investigates the disruption from the line operation perspective. Betweenness centrality (BC) and passenger betweenness centrality (PBC), number of missed trips, weighted average path length, and weighted global efficiency were analyzed considering relative disruption probability of each line. Passenger flow distribution and re-distribution were simulated for different disruption scenarios based on all-or-nothing assignment rule. The results indicate that the metro lines carrying a large number of passengers generally have a significant impact on the network vulnerability. The lines with circular topological form also have a significant influence on passenger flow re-distribution in case of a disruption. The results of this study provide suggestions on metro system administration for potential improvement of the performance of operation, and passengers may meanwhile have an improved alternate plan for their commute trip when a disruption occurs.
Introduction
Urban metro system generally has to deal with intractable heavily passenger loading during peak hours, in which demands are extreme huge in certain stations. However, overcrowding ...doesn’t ubiquitously exist for all stations and mitigation measures have to be carried out on purpose, respectively. Because of the restrictions on operational costs and avoiding transportation resources wasting, simply increasing dispatch frequency is not rational to solve the problem.
Methods
Short turning pattern has been proved to be an efficient way to solve the issue, which had been mainly used in urban ground public transport systems. This paper applied short turning pattern to urban metro system and relaxed constraints of the turning-back facility. A mathematical model is proposed to determine the short turning parameters, during which a load factor was introduced as a measurement of overcrowding condition. An empirical case from Shanghai Metro Line 2 was incorporated to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed model.
Results
The results indicated that the short turning route from Beixinjing to Longyang Rd. in Shanghai Metro Line 2 could effectively relieve overcrowding within the heavy traffic demand zones.
Conclusions
Findings of this study could provide valuable suggestions in metro system administration for potential improvement on the operational performance during peak hours.