Getting passengers on and off trains efficiently is a fundamental requirement for all passenger railway services. For high frequency services, this process takes the majority of time during a station stop. The speed and reliability of this process drives the station dwell time and hence the potential journey timetable and capacity. Existing UK platform dispatch protocols to assist passengers boarding trains are labour-intensive, inconsistently applied and inflexible. Studies have shown that passengers tend to group near platform stairs without prior indication where to stand. Furthermore, on trains without through walkways passengers tend to stay in their carriage even if full and this creates an imbalance of carriage utilisation, which impacts on operations and the passengers' experience alike. To address these problems, the ‘Intelligent Platform Management’ system is proposed, which utilises an intuitive and easily distinguishable indication to inform passengers of space availability on an approaching train. Benefits of employing the proposed solution include: dwell time reduction, increased capacity, better platform management, enhanced customer satisfaction and increased safety. This paper explores what such a system would look like, how it works, the potential benefits and the technical, operational and cultural challenges to making such a system a reality.
Intelligent Platform Management
2016-08-01
254697 byte
Aufsatz (Konferenz)
Elektronische Ressource
Englisch