Toward A Robust Metro System

Abstract

Metro system plays an important role in public transportation due to its high speed and large volume. By the end of September 2018, 32 cities in the mainland of China have opened metro lines, particularly, the operation mileages in Beijing and Shanghai have exceeded 600 kilometers. The robustness of metro systems, i.e., the ability to withstand adverse events, is therefore of great concern to these urbanized societies. However, few studies have focused on the enhancement of the metro robustness considering both the supply side and demand side. This research aims to improve the robustness of metro systems by balance passenger demand and optimize resources allocation.

A fundamental step to measure and to enhance the robustness of a metro system is to find its critical components. The damage or close of a critical component will cause great risk on the safety of the system. This probation report provides preliminary results on the identification of dynamic critical components over the day of a week and the time of the day.