Urban rail transit disruption management: Research progress and future directions

Abstract

Urban rail transit (URT) disruptions present considerable challenges due to several factors: i) a high probability of occurrence, arising from facility failures, disasters, and vandalism; ii) substantial negative effects, notably the delay of numerous passengers; iii) an escalating frequency, attributable to the gradual aging of facilities; and iv) severe penalties, including substantial fines for abnormal operation. This article systematically reviews URT disruption management literature from the past decade, categorizing it into pre-disruption and post-disruption measures. The pre-disruption research focuses on reducing the effects of disruptions through network analysis, passenger behavior analysis, resource allocation for protection and backup, and enhancing system resilience. Conversely, post-disruption research concentrates on restoring normal operations through train rescheduling and bus bridging services. The review reveals that while post-disruption strategies are thoroughly explored, pre-disruption research is predominantly analytical, with a scarcity of practical pre-emptive solutions. Moreover, future research should focus more on increasing the interchangeability of transport modes, reinforcing redundancy relationships between URT lines, and innovating post-disruption strategies.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

urban rail transit / disruption management / resilient network / train rescheduling / bus bridging services

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Competing Interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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