Mass Rapid Transit Stations Research Articles

The Stability of Diaphragm Wall for Deep Excavation

Rapid urbanisation and the increase in population has led to massive use of underground spaces, especially in the city. Before an underground structure is built, the use of retaining structure is crucial in order to prevent the excavation from failure. Diaphragm wall is a widely used retaining structure, particularly for deep excavation. A holistic understanding of the performance and its behaviour is essential to provide stability of the soil retained. A parametric study by using Plaxis2D has been conducted to determine the factors affecting the stability of diaphragm wall and the excavation sites in underground Mass Rapid Transit station of Hospital Kuala Lumpur (HKLX). The objectives of this study are to determine the effect of diaphragm wall stiffness, groundwater drawdown and the depth of wall for deep excavation. The stability is captured based on the lateral deflection of wall, bending moment, safety factor and ground movement near the diaphragm wall. From the study, it is found that the diaphragm wall with high stiffness can reduce wall deflection up to 20% with the addition of 49% bending moment and achieve a high factor of safety. Furthermore, groundwater drawdown is seen reducing lateral deflection of the wall up to 1.08% as well as increasing the factor of safety. Finally, decreasing wall depth reduces the wall deflection by 0.38% and also the basal heaving.

Parallel shuttle bus service design for planned mass rapid transit shutdown: The Singapore experience

19 MRT stations in Singapore experienced a two full-day shutdown as planned in order to upgrade the infrastructure of aging mass rapid transit (MRT) lines. A large bus fleet, running entirely parallel to MRT lines, was deployed to ferry passengers between affected stations, which however results in prolonged congestion and queue of buses near terminals. Rail transit systems in many metropolitan areas are threatened because of aging infrastructure. This study, motivated by the Singapore case, proposes a novel parallel shuttle bus service design (PSBSD) problem that addresses route design, terminal selection, berth allocation, and bus deployment to minimize inconvenience caused to passengers, which is seldom addressed in previous studies. We further develop a mixed-integer nonlinear programming (MINLP) model for the PSBSD problem. In order to solve the non-convex MINLP model optimally, we put forward an effective decomposition method, which comprises (i) the generation of candidate shuttle bus routes through a brute-force search for semi-route and a terminal selection procedure and (ii) the deployment of buses and assignment of terminal berths for selected shuttle bus routes by using an optimization-based approach. Numerical experiments were conducted using data sets from the MRT closure incident in Singapore. The results demonstrate that the decomposition method is capable of finding optimal solutions. Useful insights are also obtained from testing the models under different scenarios.

Key factors affecting the rent of office buildings: case study on Taipei 101

An exploration of the rent of office buildings in metropolises worldwide indicates that in response to the level of overall economic development, tenants often need to consider numerous factors when selecting the location of their offices, whereas landlords attempt to increase the rent of their buildings by using high-grade building materials to renovate the buildings and offering new facilities and property management services to meet the various needs of tenants. This study adopted the Delphic hierarchy process and analytic hierarchy process to explore office building rent in Taipei City by distributing a questionnaire to experts in the real estate field who possess practical experience in executing real estate projects. Specifically, the study investigated how office building rent is affected by factors such as geographical location and public facilities, thereby generating a reference for identifying related key factors. Analyzing the data collected from the questionnaire and the weighted indictor scores revealed that location in the main business district is the most crucial factor, followed by proximity to a Taipei Mass Rapid Transit station and the office building being a renowned landmark. By contrast, adequate property management is not a primary factor considered by the experts.

A Big Data–Based Geographically Weighted Regression Model for Public Housing Prices: A Case Study in Singapore

In this research, three hedonic pricing models, including an ordinary least squares (OLS) model, a Euclidean distance–based (ED-based) geographically weighted regression (GWR) model, and a travel time–based GWR model supported by a big data set of millions of smartcard transactions, have been developed to investigate the spatial variation of Housing Development Board (HDB) public housing resale prices in Singapore. The results help identify factors that could significantly affect public housing resale prices, including the age and the floor area of the housing units, the distance to the nearest park, the distance to the central business district (CBD), and the distance to the nearest Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) station. The comparison of the three models also explicitly shows that the two GWR models perform much better than the traditional linear hedonic regression model, given the identical variables and data used in the calibration. Furthermore, the travel time–based GWR model has better model fit compared to the ED-based GWR model in the case study. This study demonstrates the potential value of the big data–based GWR model in housing research. It could also be applied to other research fields such as public health and criminal justice.

Feasibility study of bike sharing in Singapore

This study analysed the feasibility of a bike-sharing programme in Singapore based on a case study in the Jurong Lake district. Data were collected using a two-stage perception survey to gather the public’s general awareness and opinions about bike sharing and followed by estimating the likely take-up rate of bike sharing. The results showed that bike-sharing schemes would be suitable around mass rapid transit stations and low rental costs would encourage bike sharing. Finally, a distance-based mode-choice model was established for four scenarios (morning peak and good weather, morning peak and bad weather, evening peak and good weather and evening peak and bad weather), focusing on walking, bike sharing and taking a bus. Weather could have an obvious impact on the frequency of bike sharing.

Impact of Built Environment on First- and Last-Mile Travel Mode Choice

The paper studies the impacts of built environment (BE) on the first- and last-mile travel modal choice. We select Singapore as a case study. The data used for this work is extracted from the first- and last-mile trips to mass rapid transit (MRT) stations in the Household Interview Travel Survey of Singapore in 2012 with nearly 24,000 samples. The BE indicators are quantified based on four “D” variables: Density, Diversity, Design, and Distance to transit. We also take into account sociodemographic and trip-specific variables. Mixed logit (ML) modeling frameworks are adopted to estimate the impact of BE and the heterogeneity of taste across the sample. Based on the availability of light rail transit (LRT) in different areas, two modeling structures are implemented with binary ML models for non-LRT areas where “walk” and “bus” are the available travel modes, and multinomial ML models for areas where LRT is an additional alternative. The modeling results shed light on the following findings: BE—especially distance to MRT station, transportation infrastructures, land-use mix, and socioeconomic activities—significantly influences the first- and last-mile travel behaviors. Those who live or work close to MRT stations and in an area with high socioeconomic activities and land-use mix may have stronger preferences to walk for the first- and last-mile trips. The impact of physical BE (i.e., distance, infrastructures) is relatively homogeneous among the sample, while the impact of socioeconomic BE factors (i.e., floor space density, entropy) tends to vary across the sample.

Influence of groundwater drawdown on excavation responses – A case history in Bukit Timah granitic residual soils

Performances of a braced cut-and-cover excavation system for mass rapid transit (MRT) stations of the Downtown Line Stage 2 in Singapore are presented. The excavation was carried out in the Bukit Timah granitic (BTG) residual soils and characterized by significant groundwater drawdown, due to dewatering work in complex site conditions, insufficient effective waterproof measures and more permeable soils. A two-dimensional numerical model was developed for back analysis of retaining wall movement and ground surface settlement. Comparisons of these measured excavation responses with the calculated performances were carried out, upon which the numerical simulation procedures were calibrated. In addition, the influences of groundwater drawdown on the wall deflection and ground surface settlement were numerically investigated and summarized. The performances were also compared with some commonly used empirical charts, and the results indicated that these charts are less applicable for cases with significant groundwater drawdowns. It is expected that these general behaviors will provide useful references and insights for future projects involving excavation in BTG residual soils under significant groundwater drawdowns.

Floor-level premiums in private housing: the case of condominiums in Singapore

ABSTRACTUsing a sample consists of 3367 actual condominium sales transacted in resale market from May 2012 to April 2015 from the Singapore Urban and Redevelopment Authority, a hedonic pricing model is used to investigate for the presence of floor-level premiums in the private housing market, condominium, in District 23 of Singapore. Unit size, types of land tenure and the distance to the nearest mass rapid transit (MRT) station are also used as other independent variables. The estimated coefficient of each of these independent variables is statistically significant. Each of these independent variables also has positive estimated coefficient, suggesting that they have positive effects on condominium resale prices. Main findings are (a) there is a presence of floor-level premium; (b) the condominiums with a distance more than 400 m to the MRT station get higher resale prices; and (c) there is an increasing effect of floor level on condominium price.

The Government Land Sales programme and developers’ willingness to pay for accessibility in Singapore, 1990–2015

Singapore has been internationally referred to as a successful model of state-led spatial development alongside world-class infrastructure investment, but there is a paucity of evidence on the effectiveness of the city-state’s Government Land Sales (GLS) programme as an instrument of strategic spatial integration used to increase land productivity/profitability via accessibility enhancements at various locations in dynamic sequences. This study examines whether developers’ willingness to pay for accessible land around major transport and green infrastructure facilities was consistent with the city-state’s strategic spatial vision by analysing GLS transaction cases for the period 1990–2015. The spatiotemporal regressions of the GLS programme’s transaction unit prices, attributable to tendering conditions, permitted development parameters, and locational characteristics, including the availability of major infrastructure facilities within certain distances, reveal that accessibility premiums appeared to be most significant within 500 m of mass rapid transit (MRT) stations, where Singapore’s statutory agencies were likely to distribute state-owned sites reactively after the new MRT stations came into operation. Singapore’s experience over a quarter of a century implies that government land ownership and development guidance could bring about competitive and sustainable market outcomes if a range of site sales implemented by local agencies are collectively programmed for strategic spatial planning in fast-growing regions of the world.

Assessing Bus Performance Rating in Kajang, Selangor

The Transit Capacity and Quality of Service Manual (TCQSM) was chosen based on the review with four manuals and guidelines for the method will be applied. Six (6) attributes, namely Hours of Service, Passenger Load, Transit Auto Travel Time, Service Frequency, Punctuality Performance and Service Coverage were chosen for evaluation.[6][7][8]. A total of three (3) operators with seven (7) routes were identified in Kajang. Based on the final results, the Quality of Service (QOS) findings was rated as D, which was regarded as minimum or satisfactory. Most stakeholders’ recommendations were: for the operators to provide information on bus scheduling and have accurate information for the passengers. It was suggested that in future this study can be extended to all routes and could be repeated after the opening of the Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) stations in Kajang, so as to provide a comparison and better evaluation of the public buses in Kajang.

Equality of public transit connectivity: the influence of mass rapid transit services on individual buildings for Singapore

ABSTRACTAccessibility and its equality are key factors for land-use and transport planning in city developments. In this paper, we propose a graph-based Public Transit Connectivity (PTC) index to measure the accessibility of individual buildings focusing on transportation factors. A large-scale graph is created to connect all buildings in the city through multi-modal public transit services. The PTC index of each building is calculated based on the door-to-door travel distance/time from the building to all others using a parallel graph closeness centrality algorithm. In addition, the PTC index is verified from an economic perspective, as it is highly correlative to house resale price and thus enable accurate price prediction using machine learning models. Consequently, the PTC index and its equality are used to evaluate the influence of existing and future Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) services in Singapore as a case study. As experimental results show, MRT services significantly enhance PTC indices of individual buildings. However, they could not improve PTC equality in city scale due to their conflicting effects, i.e. (1) shrinking the difference between central and peripheral regions and (2) enlarging the difference among buildings with different distances to the nearest MRT stations.

Remodelling care for low back pain: tripartite partnership among general practitioners, physiotherapists and hospital specialists

Introduction : Government-run primary healthcare polyclinics in Singapore are often overcrowded and overloaded due to the high fee-for-service (cost gradient) when patients visit private general practitioners (GP: USD22 vs. USD6) and physiotherapists (PT: USD91 vs. USD36). Moreover, patients often experience long wait time before receiving care due in part to limited physiotherapy services in the polyclinics. As a result, patients suffering from low back pain (LBP) and require physiotherapy are often referred to specialist doctors sited at government-run tertiary hospitals, complemented with acute physiotherapy services. However, patients are reluctant to receive follow-up care at the overcrowded polyclinics when their condition was assessed to be stable. There is a need to decongest acute care services for more deserving complex patients. Practice Change Implemented : A tripartite relationship among private GP, PT and public hospital-based orthopaedic surgeons was forged [Delivering-on-Target GP – Allied Health Partnership Programme (DOT GP – AHPP)] to narrow the cost gradient. Stable patients can now be right-sited to less crowded privately-run primary care facilities for follow-up. Aim : We aim to demonstrate that patients receiving care from this new model are satisfied with the cost, quality, and effectiveness of services provided by the DOT-AHPP liaison officers (DALO) and private partners. Methods : Seventy-seven patients suffering from LBP, suitable for conservative treatment, and assessed to be stable by orthopaedic surgeons from Singapore General Hospital (SGH) participated in this new model of care from August 2015 to April 2016. Patient satisfaction with our DALO and AHPP PT were described. Visual analogue pain scores (VAS) were evaluated before and after physiotherapy at AHPP using Wilcoxon signed-rank test. Results : Forty-two (54.6%) and Forty-five (58.5%) patients are very/extremely satisfied with the clarity of information and helpfulness presented by the DALO respectively. Twenty-two (28.6%) patients were referred for physiotherapy at AHPP but only 16 (20.8%) actualised the visit; Twelve (75.0%) patients were either satisfied or very satisfied with the overall affordability, friendliness, knowledge and ambience of the AHPP clinics. Significant improvement in VAS was observed after AHPP physiotherapy [n=9; before: 6.3(1.7); after: 4.0(1.6); P=.007]. Discussion : Patients receiving care from this new model are generally satisfied with the right-siting process. Overall, patients receiving care from AHPP PT reported improvement in their condition and were satisfied with the cost gradient reduction. Further strategies can be implemented to increase the enrolment. These include deepening the AHPP and specialists relationship by governing the care provision, regular case discussion and building trust. Further cost reduction, for example, with government subvention may increase patient enrolment. Limitations : The number of AHPP physiotherapy clinics is limited and most of them are geographically located in central Singapore. This may prohibit patients from enrolling into the new care model. More partners can be co-opted, especially in the northern and western parts of Singapore. These partners should be located close to Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) stations in order to reduce travel inconveniences to patients. Conclusions : The tripartite public-private partnership model has proven useful to decongest acute care services. However, more strategies to increase uptake by patients are needed.

Impact of traveller information on mode choice behaviour

This paper analysed automobile commuters' mode choice behaviour under the influence of simulated multimodal traveller information by developing two logit models. A combined revealed preference (RP)/stated preference (SP) travel behaviour survey was administered to drivers to gather individual commuters' travel decisions under integrated multimodal traveller information. Two SP scenarios were designed where the first scenario is to test the mode choice preference in a basic situation involving a congested work/school trip with information on several travel options, and the second scenario is to investigate the mode choice decision when certain incentives are given for public transport. Results showed that integrated multimodal traveller information can influence a traveller's mode choice decision. The influencing factors that significantly affect the mode choice decision include socio-economic characteristics – for example, gender, age, level of education and level of income – and multimodal traveller information attributes – for example, access mode to mass rapid transit (MRT) station, access time to MRT station and transit seat availability. The findings are useful to traffic management agencies for designing better operational policy and information publication strategies.

A new Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) line construction and housing wealth: Evidence from the Circle Line

This study uses the opening of the new Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) in stages between 2010 and 2012 in Singapore as the exogenous event to empirically test the impact of the new Circle Line (CL) on housing wealth. Applying a "differences-in-differences" approach to the non-landed private housing transaction data covering the period from 2009 to 2013, we find that the average housing prices increase by 1.6% in the post-opening of the CL. We find significant capitalization of the new CL into housing prices, especially households living within a 400-meter radius (the treatment zone) from the closest MRT stations on the CL. The treatment effects that are measured by the “marginalwillingness to pay” for houses located within the treatment zone is 13.2% relative to houses located outside the treatment zone. The new CL opening creates an estimated S$1.23 billion housing wealth effects for households living in close proximity to the CL MRT stations. However, we do not find significant "anticipative" effects on house prices in the six-month window prior to the opening of CL. The strongest treatment effect is found after the opening of the phase 1 of CL, and the treatment intensity declines in phases 2 and 3 of the CL opening.

A New Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) Line Construction and Housing Wealth: Evidence from the Circle Line

This study uses the opening of a new Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) line, known as the Circle Line (CL), between 2010 and 2012 in Singapore as the exogenous event to empirically test the impact of the new CL on housing wealth of households. Using a differences-in-differences (DID) approach, and with the non-landed private housing transaction data covering the period from 2009 to 2013, we find that the average housing prices in our sample increase by 1.6% in the post-opening of the CL. We also find significant capitalization of the new CL into housing prices, especially households living within a 400 meter radius (the treatment zone) from the closest MRT stations on the CL. The treatment effects that are measured by the marginal willingness to pay for houses located within the treatment zone is 13.2% relative to houses located outside the treatment zone. The new CL opening creates an estimated of S$1.23 billion housing effects for households living in the close proximity to the CL MRT stations. However, we do not find significant “anticipative” effects on house prices in the 6-month window prior to the opening of CL. The strongest treatment effect is found after the opening of the phase 1 of CL, and the intensity of treatment effects declines in phases 2 and 3 of the CL opening. The results show strong evidence of the causality from the accessibility to MRT stations on housing prices.

Crowd Dynamics and Control in High-Volume Metro Rail Stations

Overcrowding in mass rapid transit stations is a chronic issue affecting daily commute in Metro Manila, Philippines. As a high-capacity public transportation, the Metro Rail Transit has been operating at a level above its intended capacity of 350,000 passengers daily. Despite numerous efforts in implementing an effective crowd control scheme, it still falls short in containing the formation of crowds and long lines, thus affecting the amount of time before they can proceed to the platforms. A crowd dynamics model of commuters in one of the high-volume terminal stations, the Taft Ave station, was developed to help discover emergent behavior in crowd formation and assess infrastructure preparedness. The agent-based model uses static floor fields derived from the MRT3 live feed, and implements a number of social force models to optimize the path-finding of the commuter agents. Internal face validation, historical validation and parameter variability-sensitivity analysis were employed to validate the crowd dynamics model and assess different operational scenarios. It was determined that during peak hours, when the expected crowd inflow may reach up to 7,500 commuters, at least 11 ticket booths and 6 turnstiles should be open to have low turnaround times of commuters. For non-peak hours, at least 10 ticket booths and 5 turnstiles are needed to handle a crowd inflow reaching up to 5,000 commuters. In the current set-up, the usual number of ticket booths open in the MRT Taft Station is 11, and there are usually 6 turnstiles open. It was observed that as the crowd inside the station increases to 200-250 commuters, there is a significant increase in the increase rate of the turnaround times of the commuters, which signifies the point at which the service provided starts to degrade and when officials should start to intervene.

Analysis of Aerosol Composition and Assessment of Tunnel Washing Performance within a Mass Rapid Transit System in Taiwan

ABSTRACTThe metro system is the main mode of transportation in Taipei City. The air quality of metro stations is crucial for passengers. This study investigated particle size distribution and its elemental composition and assessed tunnel washing performance in the Taipei Rapid Transit System (TRTS). A 24-hour particle sampling process was performed in the tunnels, platforms, and entrances and exits to measure particulate matter (PM)2.5 and PM10 concentrations in an underground metro station and to analyze PM metal components. PM10 and PM2.5 concentrations decreased sequentially from the tunnels to the platforms and then to the entrances and exits to ambient environment in the metro station. The main metal components of suspended particulates in the TRTS mainly included iron, barium, copper, manganese, magnesium, aluminum, chromium, zinc, nickel, and lead. The total PM10 and PM2.5 metal proportions were 33.9%–24.7% and 32.9%–22.8%, respectively. Furthermore, the effectiveness of tunnel washing in reducing the PM concentration was investigated. Monitoring results showed an increase in PM10 and PM2.5 concentrations after tunnel washing on the first day. The PM concentration started to decrease from the second day. Furthermore, 3.5 months after tunnel washing, the PM10 concentration decreased by 45.9%, and 2 months after tunnel washing, the PM2.5 concentration decreased by 71.3%. The mechanism of the continuous reduction in the PM10 concentration after cleaning is probably related to the porous material of tunnel walls, which may provide a deposition sink for aerosol particles, as well as the filter effect of the air conditioning system. This is the first study to use full-section tunnel washing to reduce PM exposure at mass rapid transit (MRT) stations. Although full-section tunnel washing reduced the PM concentration in the metro station, accessorial technology, such as the air conditioning system or platform design, may help in reducing the exposure of MRT passengers.

Effect of weather conditions and weather forecast on cycling travel behavior in Singapore

ABSTRACTWeather conditions have considerable influence on cycling travel behavior, especially in tropical countries such as Singapore, which has a hot, humid, and rainy climate. This study examined the effects of weather conditions and weather forecasts on cycling travel behavior in Singapore. Cyclists (n = 553) answered a questionnaire on their perceptions of weather conditions, travel accident risk, pre-trip and during-trip acquisition of weather information, possible travel plan changes, trip duration, trip purpose, trip frequency, and respondents' social demography. The questionnaires were administrated directly on sites around mass rapid transit (MRT) stations and bike parking areas during daylight hours (08:00–18:00 h) and in dry as well as wet weather conditions. Concurrently, real-time weather information from the nearest weather measurement station and weather forecast information were collected from a smart phone application furnished by the National Environment Agency. Cyclists were found to prefer relatively lower temperature (29.5–31.5°C) and humidity (52.3%–62.7%) and no rainfall (in past 60 min). Higher temperature (>30.9°C), humidity (>55.8%), and rainfall (>0.28 mm in past 60 min) tended to elevate cyclists' self-estimated level of traffic accident risk. Nearly 30% of participating cyclists checked the weather forecast information before the onset of the trip, in which internet, radio, and smart phone applications were the main media sources. Social/leisure trip was the main purpose for cyclists during wet weather. Irregular trips were clearly underrepresented during wet weather conditions, suggesting that some trips were postponed or cancelled. Cyclists with before-trip information of wet weather forecast were more likely to change their travel mode, but such influence was weaker for adverse weather forecast acquired during the trip. Research results suggested that the authorities could provide real-time and predicted weather information, especially during wet weather conditions, to help travelers adjust their travel plan in time and improve the level of travel safety.

Operating Efficiency of International Tourist Hotels in Taiwan by Taking Into Account Congestion

ABSTRACTThis study measures the congestion efficiency of 69 international tourist hotels (ITHs) in Taiwan between 1998 and 2009. Out of 69 ITHs, 62 faced a congestion situation and the number of guest rooms and total floor spaces of the catering divisions are the main congesting factors. The distance to a mass rapid transit station, pick-up service, and established years have significantly negative effects on congestion efficiency of ITHs, while the distance to nearest airport has a significantly positive impact on efficiency. American and Japanese tourists, independent ownership, and rural location significantly help improve an ITH’s efficiency.

The impacts of urban mass rapid transit lines on the density and mobility of high-income households: A case study of Singapore

Urban rail transit could affect urban development in multiple aspects. Using Singapore as an example, we investigate the impact of planners’ and developers’ decisions on the density distribution of high-income households in areas around Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) stations and how these households respond to better access to urban rail transit systems. We find that the maximum density permitted by the master plan is only marginally correlated with the distances to MRT stations. Instead, the average unit size tends to be smaller, and the share of small-sized units tends to be higher in new private projects that are close to MRT stations after the new lines are in operation. This indicates that developers, who act mainly in response to the market, intentionally place more housing units in developments closer to MRT stations. Consequently, more upper- and upper-middle-class households that can afford private housing are accommodated in areas with greater accessibility to MRT. By comparing two household travel surveys before and after the opening of the Circle Line, we find that MRT did not change household demographics much in the station area, but there was an evident change in the mode share of trips made by the surveyed households, embodied by lower levels of car dependence and more reliance on MRT.