Assessing Protection Strategies for Urban Rail Transit Systems: A Case-Study on the Central London Underground

Annunziata Esposito Amideo, Stefano Starita and Maria Paola Scaparra
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Annunziata Esposito Amideo: UCD Quinn School of Business, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
Stefano Starita: Sasin School of Management, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok 10330, Thailand
Maria Paola Scaparra: Centre for Logistics and Heuristic Optimisation (CLHO), Kent Business School, University of Kent, Canterbury CT2 7FS, UK

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 22, 1-21

Abstract: Urban rail transit systems are highly prone to disruptions of various nature (e.g., accidental, environmental, man-made). Railway networks are deemed as critical infrastructures given that a service interruption can prompt adverse consequences on entire communities and lead to potential far-reaching effects. Hence, the identification of optimal strategies to mitigate the negative impact of disruptive events is paramount to increase railway systems’ resilience. In this paper, we investigate several protection strategies deriving from the application of either single asset vulnerability metrics or systemic optimization models. The contribution of this paper is threefold. Firstly, a single asset metric combining connectivity, path length and flow is defined, namely the Weighted Node Importance Evaluation Index (WI). Secondly, a novel bi-level multi-criteria optimisation model, called the Railway Fortification Problem (RFP), is introduced. RFP identifies protection strategies based on stations connectivity, path length, or travel demand, considered as either individual or combined objectives. Finally, two different protection strategy approaches are applied to a Central London Underground case study: a sequential approach based on single-asset metrics and an integrated approach based on RFP. Results indicate that the integrated approach outperforms the sequential approach and identifies more robust protection plans with respect to different vulnerability criteria.

Keywords: critical infrastructures (CI); railway systems; protection to disruptions; optimisation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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