Resilience Enhancement of an Urban Rail Transit Network by Setting Turn-Back Tracks: A Scenario Model Approach

Abstract

The resilience of an urban rail transit (URT) network when faced with disruptions is affected by the locations of stations equipped with turn-back (TB) tracks. However, limited studies have enhanced the resilience of a URT network by setting new TB tracks. The present work addresses this gap by proposing and solving a scenario model for improving the operation of a URT network under normal conditions and disruptions by considering uncertain disruptions. A solution algorithm combined with the non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm-II is proposed to solve the model. Numerical experiments conducted on the Chengdu subway system indicate that the resilience of a URT network is significantly affected by TB operations provided at stations equipped with TB tracks. Compared with a network without new TB tracks, the matching degree between passenger flow spatial distribution and TB convenience, and the network’s overall resilience metric (NORM) are improved by 12.05% and 0.58%, respectively, when five new TB tracks are installed. The solution effectiveness of the model is related to the number of new TB tracks, and the NORM decreases by an average of $2.06\times {10}^{-5}$ after adding new TB tracks to a station.