Abstract
AbstractDuring COVID-19, certain means were proposed to improve crowd management in the Birmingham New Street railway station. To validate the current system of crowd management in the station, this paper examines the rail passenger flow in the concourse of the Birmingham New Street railway station and the passenger interactions and queueing phenomena associated with it, mainly at the ticket machines, offices and gates, prior to and during the implementation of COVID-19 measures. The passenger behaviour in the concourse of the station was simulated using the SIMUL8 event-based simulation modelling package. Three different scenarios were modelled to analyse the changes and impacts from pre-COVID-19 and within the COVID-19 context. The results revealed that passenger behaviour in railway stations is changing due to COVID-19. Specifically, passengers are more likely to buy tickets using their smartphones or online prior to or whilst entering the station so that they can go through the station concourse with minimal queuing times and avoid contact with a facility of common use at the station, whereas those without tickets are more likely to be in a queue to buy their tickets in the station. For pre-COVID, the results showed that even with a reduced number of ticket machines, overcrowding inside the station was unlikely to occur, as 80% of all passengers in the simulation completed service within a 15-minute time frame. However, during implementation of COVID-19 measures, as the number of passengers using the station dropped significantly and more passengers bought their tickets using their smartphones and/or online, queueing times were also shorter, and thus passengers spent less time in the system. The simulation results were in accordance with the expected practice; hence the effectiveness of the simulation model was verified. Overall, as a result of this study, the following suggestions to improve crowd management in a railway passenger station concourse are proposed: encourage passengers to purchase tickets on their smartphones, remove ticket gates and replace them with sensors, and provide a one-way passenger flow system in the main concourse of the station.
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Subject
Electrical and Electronic Engineering,Urban Studies,Transportation,Automotive Engineering,Geography, Planning and Development,Civil and Structural Engineering
Reference31 articles.
1. Al-Shaery AM, Alshehri SS, Farooqi NS, Khozium MO (2020) In-depth survey to detect, monitor and manage crowd. IEEE Access 8:209008–209019. https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2020.3038334
2. Brice D, Marinov M, Rüger B (2015) A newly designed baggage transfer system implemented using event-based simulations. Urban Rail Transit 1(4):194–214. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40864-015-0027-4
3. Crannis J, Lee J, Marinov M (2022) Study of sustainable transport enhancements through analysing utilisation levels of rail lines with enhanced passenger and freight services: a case study on a local rail line through simulation modelling and scenarios. In: Marinov M, Piip J (eds) Sustainable rail transport 4. Lecture notes in mobility. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-82095-4_5
4. Das S, Boruah A, Banerjee A, Raoniar R, Nama S, Maurya AK (2021) Impact of COVID-19: A radical modal shift from public to private transport mode. Transp Policy 109:1–11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tranpol.2021.05.005
5. Department for Transport (2020a) All change? Travel tracker wave 1 summary for the Department for Transport. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/902845/all-change-travel-tracker-wave-1-summary-for-the-department-for-transport.pdf. Accessed: 11 Nov 2020.
Cited by
3 articles.
订阅此论文施引文献
订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献