A Service-oriented Metro Traffic Regulation Method for Improving Operation Performance

Abstract: For high-density metro traffic, nowadays the time-variant passenger flow is the main cause of train delays and stranded passengers. Typically, the main objective of automatic metro traffic regulation methods is to minimize the delay time of trains while passengers' satisfaction is not considered. Instead, in this work, a novel framework that integrates a passenger flow module (PFM) and a train operation module (TOM) is proposed with the aim of simultaneously minimizing traffic delays and passengers' discomfort. In particular, the PFM is devoted to the optimization of the headway time in case of platform overcrowding, so as to reduce the passengers waiting time at platforms and increase the load rate of trains; while the TOM is devoted to the minimization of trains' delays. The two modules interact with each other so that the headway time is automatically adjusted when a platform is overcrowded, and the train traffic is immediately regulated according to the new headway time. As a result, the number of passengers on the platform and their total waiting time can be significantly reduced. Numerical results are provided to show the effectiveness of the proposed method in improving the operation performance while minimizing the passengers' discomfort.