How Does Railway Respond to COVID-19 Spreading? -- Countermeasure Analysis and Evaluation around the World

Abstract

Abstract The global pandemic of COVID-19 has a significant impact on world development. As an important part of public services, the rail transit requires effective response countermeasures to control the spread of COVID-19. On the premise of considering the current development of the epidemic situation, this article discusses the characteristics of the COVID-19 transmission and finds out the vulnerable spot of preventing and controlling the spread of the epidemic in the rail transit system. The countermeasures that adopted to prevent COVID-19 spreading are analyzed from the external and internal categories, which were classified by 6 aspects: passenger service, cases care, information, staff, equipment and operation management specifically. Meanwhile, an evaluation architecture was constructed, which were established from the views of effectiveness, economic efficiency, acceptability, privacy and so on. The implementation effect of the measures was evaluated and the advantage and shortage of them were analyzed, which can be used to guide the epidemic prevention and control for the rail transit systems of the countries around the world in the future. It is meaningful to formulate a reasonable work schedule according to local conditions, providing a reference for rapid response to future public health emergency of international concern.