Analysis of surging passenger flow in urban rail transit network

Based on daily subway card data and rail transit network GIS data collected in Beijing,the hourly usage pattern of Beijing rail transit was estimated under the condition of stable passenger flow using the network flow theory. In this paper,a calculation method was proposed to compute the cross sectional passenger flow,quantify the network's degree of congestion and discover that,in passenger flow peak hours,when adding the same number of passenger flow to the rail transit network,the impacts are tremendous different. In addition,combined with the Gini coefficient of passenger flow distribution,corresponding strategies and measures were put forward for those stations which own a weak capability in dealing with surging passenger flow. These findings provide new thought and information support for the operation and management of urban rail transit networks,and have significant meanings in improving the safety and comfortableness of urban rail transit network.