Method for Coordinated Passenger Inflow Control Strategy of Metro with Flexible Control Time Step Considering Long–Short Route Pattern

Abstract

In metropolises with large populations, some metro lines tend to have particularly high train load rates during peak hours, causing passengers to be stranded for several times on the platforms of some stations, triggering undesirable consequences of platform congestion and a lower level of service for some passengers. Therefore, coordinated passenger inflow control becomes an important means to alleviate station congestion and balance the fairness of passenger service level between stations on an oversaturated metro line. This paper considers the influence of passengers’ train selection behavior on inflow control under the conditions of a long–short train route pattern, puts forward the train schedule–based inflow control step division principle, with the objective function of minimizing the total stranded value of the line, and establishes a line-based coordinated inflow control model under the constraints of passenger demand, platform capacity, and train capacity. To solve the model, a simulation-based algorithm embedded with improved genetic algorithm is developed. A case study on China’s Shanghai Metro Line 6 is conducted to demonstrate the performance and effectiveness of the proposed approach.