Centrality of an Urban Rail System

Abstract

Railway re-emerges as one of the most important man-made physical systems in the world. Hundreds of million passengers travel by trains within cities. Hence, the management and maintenance of rail and station facilities are crucial. The paper introduces five centrality measures and explains whether and how these measures can be applied to the network analysis of urban rail systems. Centrality measures were used to identify the characteristics of Hong Kong’s urban rail system. Results showed that betweenness centrality is the most appropriate measure to indicate the relative importance of a station based on its potential on strategic facility management and risk management in an urban rail system.