Train Overcrowding

Abstract

Crowded trains are a feature of many railway networks, and adversely affect both train passengers and rail operators. For passengers, the lack of space or inability to get a seat can lead to a lack of physical comfort, reduced productivity and increased stress. Crowded trains can also lead to problems boarding and alighting, increasing dwell times and making it harder for operators to provide a reliable service. It is therefore desirable to reduce crowding levels, but it isn't always practical to achieve this by increasing capacity and other measures need to be considered. Some passengers have shown willingness to change their behavior to avoid crowding, for example by waiting for a later train, and measures to encourage such behavioral changes more widely could be beneficial overall. Better information provision could be one such measure, and a stated preference survey was undertaken on a commuter and airport service in order to investigate this further. It was found that the provision of information about crowding levels and seating availability on alternative trains would encourage some passengers to wait for a less crowded train. While the willingness of passengers to wait for a later train varied with both trip purpose and with the origin station, the findings suggest that real-time information would improve the passenger experience and could form the basis of a revenue neutral demandmanagement system. The implications for station design are particularly pertinent for countries such as the USA where significant investment in new passenger rail systems is expected.

Calibrating Path Choices and Train Capacities for Urban Rail Transit Simulation Models Using Smart Card and Train Movement Data

“…ese results are from [34]. e C-logit model formulation is the same as equations ( 1) and (2). A total number of 31,640 passengers completed the questionnaire.…”

“…However, obtaining the corresponding path choices and quantifying reasonable vehicle capacity remains a challenge. According to Liu et al [1] and Preston et al [2], train capacity, defined as the maximum train load when remaining passengers in the platform denied boarding, may vary depending on the crowding levels in trains and on platforms and passenger attitudes. e calibration of path choices and train capacity can improve the accuracy of network loading models for performance monitoring.…”

Rebalancing the Passenger Flow Between Subways and Buses: A Periodic Stop-Skipping Strategy

“…The excessive travel demand on subway can be satisfied by building a new line [12], [13], which obviously requires not only huge investment but also massive land [9]. Maximizing the number of trains operated on a line [14] is another typical way to increase the capacity.…”

“…As an economic leverage, various fare schemes have been proposed in literatures [30]- [32] in order to flatten the travel demand throughout service. Additionally, provision of information on the crowding levels and seating availability of subways can also encourage some passengers to change their travel behavior to evade the crowded situations [9].…”

“…Obviously, high density of passenger traffic will potentially cause safety issue, to which top priority should be given rather than efficiency when deciding the operation strategy. Moreover, it is likely to occur that some trains could be forced to remain stopped in a station where the passengers crowding at doors, resulting in a delay [8], [9]. Consequently, the more a train is delayed, the more the passengers arrive at the station and attempt to get on the train, further increasing the delay.…”