The impact of differing door widths on passenger movement rates

Abstract

Increases in rail traffic are putting pressure on capacity, especially in older systems. In urban railways, capacity is determined by station stops, including the physical dimensions of trains and platforms, and the behaviour of passengers. Previous research has identified a range of factors which affect the rates at which passengers alight from, and board, trains, but train door width may not be as significant a factor as once thought. Using data from a worldwide set of operational surveys, this paper sets out a number of hypotheses to explain this, noting that other constraints (including difficulties in measuring passenger movement rates, the interior design of trains and (crucially) the positioning of boarding passengers on platforms) may be more important.