Analysis and Comparison of Pedestrian Flow Characteristics Variation on Passageway, Stairway and Escalator in Intercity Railway Stations

Abstract

Pedestrians while commuting through public transport facilities like integrated public transportation system, metro system, railway system, encounter level change facilities to transfer among different platforms. These facilities include passageway, stairway, escalator and ramps. They are confined areas and are the basic means of pedestrian movements inside a terminal to access platforms at different levels. Within limited terminal area, designing and planning of level changing infrastructures is of great challenge. For proper provisions, design and guidelines, understanding pedestrian movement is of primary importance. Moreover pedestrian’s behavior depends on type of land use like mid-block sections, intersections, sidewalks, recreational areas, terminals, etc. These level changing facilities become bottlenecks at the interface of passageway with stairways for pedestrian movement, causing reduced speeds, flow rates leading to reduced efficiency of facility. In this paper, results of pedestrian flow, speed and density on passageway, stairway and escalator are analyzed and compared to understand the variation in intercity railway stations. This study recommends provision of central rail for flow separation on passageway under equal directional flow.