A Framework for Evaluating Metro Vehicle Layouts to Maximize Satisfied Passenger Demand: A Case Study of Genoa Metro

Metro systems of a region play an important role in the provision of high-speed and seamless connectivity between two stops. They also play an important role in addressing the issues related to congestion and environmental concerns while operating at underground levels. However, they often face problems related to the overcrowding of carriages and platforms which affects their efficiency and the comfort they offer to commuters. To this effect, the vehicle carriage layout plays an important role in handling the passenger demand. In this framework, this paper focuses on identifying the best layout of vehicle carriages that should be adopted during different operational periods of the metro to better serve passenger demands with the best achievable resource utilization. In doing so, a mathematical model is formulated with the aim of maximizing the average capacity utilization of metros while analyzing the resulting impacts over satisfied passenger demand. The efficiency of the proposed model is evaluated using the case study for the metro network of Genoa, Italy. In this context, a number of different scenarios of metro vehicle carriage layouts are tested to identify the best layout during two selected time periods, namely peak hour and off-peak hour periods. Overall, the results provide insights to stakeholders for making informed decisions by analyzing the average occupancy of metros in relation to the satisfied passenger demand, under different tested scenarios.