Multistation coordinated and dynamic passenger inflow control for a metro line

Abstract

Passenger inflow control is an efficient way to relieve peak passenger flow and reduce security risks in metro networks. However, station operators develop passenger inflow control strategies independently, thus ignore the interactions among stations and lines in the actual operation. Subsequently, the single-fixed control intensity usually fails to satisfy dynamic temporal passenger demand, resulting in great stranded passengers. To address this problem, a coordinated and dynamic inflow control method is proposed to generate an optimal demand-driven control pattern in metro systems. First, a mixed integer programming model with the concept of the equivalent time interval is formulated to minimise the total number of stranded passengers on one line. Second, special consideration is paid to the transfer passengers with the aim of ensuring the safety of transfer stations. Finally, an actual passenger flow and train operation data in Beijing Batong line is conducted to test the performance of the approach. Compared with the non-coordinated and dynamic inflow control method, results show that the proposed model can balance the utilisation of transportation capacity and reduce the total number of stranded passengers by 20.6%. Sensitivity analysis results indicate that both transportation capacity and transfer capability are the main factors affecting the inflow control.