Increased patronage of suburban metro rail in many cities of the world has effected networkperformance. Crowding, especially during peak travel times detrimentally effects dwell timesthus reducing network capacity. The authors’ suggest that station dwell times are a significantfactor in service punctuality and are determined by a number of variable factors such aspassenger movement through doors, crowding on board, and the carrying of objects, and thatthese relate directly to the design of the railcar. Poor passenger dispersal within the railcar is amajor factor in doorway occlusion and therefore delayed boarding and alighting. In this study,the efficacy of an experimental interior design of railcar was compared with an existing railcarinterior for the Melbourne network. A pedestrian crowd modelling simulation tool was used toevaluate the passenger dispersal and egress time. Results showed that with adjustments tostructural features within the carriage, an increase in the efficiency of egress by around 13%could be achieved. This is a significant improvement, which can enhance the punctuality of theservice as well as the performance of the network.
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