Springer Science and Business Media LLC

Many urban rail systems operate near capacity given the rapid increase in passenger demand, and unplanned disruptions are unavoidable. From a passenger perspective, the duration of trip delays is a major concern, and passenger trip delays may be longer than the train delays. Several studies have focused on predicting train delays, but the research on the duration of the disruption impacts on passenger trips is limited given that the duration is not observed directly. This paper proposes a probabilistic method to estimate the disruption impact duration using smartcard data, explores statistical and machine learning models to predict the duration of impacts on passengers, and identifies influencing factors including incident characteristics, operating conditions, infrastructure, external factors, and demand. The results highlight that prediction accuracies are acceptable for multiple linear regression, accelerated failure time, and random forest models. Disruptions caused by power failures have longer impact durations than other causes, followed by platform screen doors. The fixed block signaling system leads to a larger disruption duration than the moving block system. The study provides, for the first time, a data-driven approach to understanding the duration of the impact of disruptions on passenger trips using smartcard data which can facilitate timely and informed decision-making under unplanned disruptions.

Under the background of urbanization and the rapid development of urban rail transit (URT), serious attention has been focused on URT network reliability in recent years. In this work, in order to measure network reliability, three indicators are constructed based on passengers’ tolerable travel paths, passenger travel efficiency and passenger travel realization on a URT network. The passenger tolerability coefficient, which is the ratio of passengers’ tolerable travel time to the shortest possible travel time, is proposed and added to the indicators. It reflects passengers’ behavior with respect to choice of travel paths. The ratio of affected passenger volume (RAPV) is proposed to identify important stations. Finally, the connectivity reliability of Wuhan’s subway network is analyzed by simulating attacks on stations. The results show that the degree centrality, betweenness centrality and RAPV indicators of stations can effectively identify the important stations that have a significant impact on the connectivity reliability of the network. In particular, the RAPV indicator effectively identifies stations that have the greatest influence on passenger travel realization. The connectivity reliability of Wuhan’s subway network is sensitive to passenger tolerability coefficient, and reliability is greater during non-peak hours than during peak hours. In addition, the stations that are important to the connectivity reliability of the Wuhan subway have two features, i.e., they are located at the center of the city, and they are important for connecting subgraphs of the network.

High levels of pollution and congestion in urban centres are an increasing concern for local councils in the UK. Heavy goods vehicles delivering urban freight to city centres are a leading cause of this problem. This paper discusses the concept of using light rail networks to deliver freight to city centres from surrounding businesses. Specifically, various innovative designs are considered for the interior of the metro carriage and developed into visual models using Autodesk Inventor software. A full evaluation of all the designs developed is completed, resulting in a proposed design for consideration. The conclusion reached is that the proposed interior design is viable and coincides with the future metro fleet designs and concepts.

Australia is home to the biggest light rail network and the industry is currently undergoing a renaissance. However, there is little research to indicate the extent to which well-informed human factors and ergonomics practises are being incorporated into tram cab design. A lack of standardised features may create transfer conflicts between cabs, as well as operational issues and concerns for occupational health. The aim of this paper is to improve our understanding of the socio-technical complexity of light rail and to enhance how design standards are informed in this domain. Various human factors methods were used, including observational cab rides, objective force assessments, interviews, and focus groups. Data were collected across two sites and analysed thematically. Analysis of data suggested a substandard level human factors and ergonomics input in the design of the cab and driver interface that violated many key tenets of established design guidelines. These were particularly concerned with the usability of the master controller (i.e. throttle lever) and various issues in the design of the tram driver workspace. Findings also revealed a number of subtle yet significant features associated with delivery of service that created safety-performance conflicts. In conclusion, very little human factors input of tram driving, and the ergonomics considerations of the driver’s workplace in general, appear to be going into the design of tram cabs. This may be related to the practice of using non-specific standards for developing trams and/or poorly integrating human factors and ergonomics into their specification processes. Some considerations for future work are given.

The global trend for rail automation is increasing but there are very few publications on public perception of the ongoing changes in the railways. In order to fill this gap and to better understand people’s perception of driverless trains, the paper focuses on automation of metro systems with a particular interest in unattended train operation (UTO). A survey seeking a public opinion on UTO was conducted, and the results show that 93 % of female and 72 % of male respondents think that a “fake” driver room should be present on a driverless train. In terms of human error, a great majority of respondents expressed no worries about a train design or maintenance issues. However, staff communication, selected by 36 % males and 43 % females, and a technical failure, highlighted by 50 % of males and 43 % of females, were two issues that raised most safety concerns amongst the respondents. Other results related to passenger’s safety, employment, advantages and limitations of the UTO, amongst other issues, are presented and discussed in the paper.

With increasing environmental concerns, light rail transit (LRT) has drawn attention for consideration in urban transportation planning by various levels of authorities in the US Government. Advocacy groups need an effective method for viability assessment of the alternatives. Environmentalists may want to support LRT, but assessment of its viability is important to provide judgment of any future transportation project . This paper presents a method for LRT viability assessment through a case study of the “Oasis Line,” as part of the Eastern Corridor Major Investment Study (MIS) by the Ohio Kentucky and Indiana Council of Governments (OKI). The study attempts to evaluate chances for “success” of the rail transit component of the MIS. An integrated method is used with a traditional four-step-based demand forecast by OKI, and a development of station-based Light Rail Ridership Regression demand forecast by Pelz. The problem to be solved—whether the line has a good enough chance at success to support and advocate for it—did not demand a full rerunning of the models. A review of appropriate literature—largely assessments of already-built light rail lines in other US cities—is used to characterize the predicted ridership as a success or failure. The predicted ridership falls comfortably above the low end of LRT systems in other US cities. The ridership predictions are found favorable to support the Oasis Line. Extensive literature review suggested that the public’s assessments behave in an almost entirely political fashion.

This research assesses the appreciation in residential property values in connection with proximity to the Little Miami Scenic Trail, a multi-purpose biking, hiking, and jogging trail built along an abandoned railroad corridor near Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. Applying two spatial hedonic frameworks, the spatial lag of X (SLX) model and the spatial Durbin error model, we conclude that proximity to trail entrances had significant impacts on property values for both, Euclidean and network distance measures. Specifically, the SLX results indicate that decreasing the distance to the closest trail entrance by one foot (meter) increases a house’s property value by US$0.92 (US$3.02) when using network distances.

Rail transportation planning is a continuous, multi-phase, functioning scale that is based on reconstructing the spatial system, thus contributing to build a more quality-focused, long-term-oriented and balanced approach. This paper presents cartographic modelling and multi-criteria analysis (CMCA) for the optimum route/station location in accordance with selected criteria and constraints for rail transit system planning. The methodology is based on overlay analysis (cartographic modelling) to combine diverse criteria maps and the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method for criteria weighting. The purpose of the study is to examine a GIS multiple-criteria decision-making (MCDM) framework by considering Stream, Geology, Slope, Land use and Population decision criteria. The decision modelling framework conceives an additional prominent approach by co-producing with the public, especially for underserved areas of low socio-economic status and public user expectations in the railway transport planning process. This model applied to a candidate metro line referred to as M 18 (Başakşehir-Esenyurt-Beylikdüzü) with eight railway stations for the preliminary stage evaluation. The outcomes of this research will close the gap by establishing a novel suitability framework which can be used as a preliminary analysis for transforming and developing urban rail transit networks.

Under the background of the rapid development of urban rail transit in China, the development demand of urban underground space has also greatly increased especially in the rail transit station areas. In this paper, taking the high-speed railway station area of Xuzhou Metro Line 1 as an example, the underground space development demand evaluation is conducted by considering the principle of urban underground space stock planning, the local underground space development conditions, as well as the special planning of the local urban constructions. Using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), a specific weight indicator scale is employed after the rationality of different weight indicator scales being compared. And then the weight indicator of different function types, i.e., commercial, parking, road, etc., are calculated and laterly utilized to forecast the recent development demand of underground space in the station area. Moreover, the steps to forecast the underground space development demand in rail transit station area are proposed, which can provide a reference for the forecasting of underground space development demand in the urban rail transit station areas.

Increasing the acceleration and deceleration of trains within a railway network can improve the performance of the system. However, the risk of passengers losing their balance and falling is also increased. The purpose of this paper is therefore to examine the effect of longitudinal vehicle accelerations on passenger safety and comfort. The literature review brings together two separate disciplinary areas, considering the effects of acceleration on balance from a physiological/kinesiological perspective, as well as looking at the results of previous empirical studies on the levels of acceleration that railway passengers will tolerate. The paper also describes an experiment carried out on the Tyne and Wear Metro, which gathered data on typical acceleration levels to compare against the findings of the literature review. It was found that both the magnitude of the accelerations and their rate of change (jerk) are important. The results also suggest that there may be scope to improve the trade-off between journey times, energy consumption and passenger comfort by fine control of the acceleration/jerk profile. This is particularly relevant to urban rail systems, as they typically feature relatively high acceleration and deceleration. However, the findings for passenger comfort are equally applicable to conventional regional and intercity services.