A Simulation Study on Passenger Escape in Rail Tunnels

Metro system in China has been expanded with a remarkable speed resulting in great concerns on passenger safety in case of emergency. Accidents in rail tunnel may cause even severe fatalities as the results of its particular geometry and confined conditions. In this article, a simulation model was adopted to study the evacuation process in a rail tunnel. Nine cases were designed for understanding the influence of varied train stopping locations on passenger evacuation performances. The simulation results were then evaluated by several performance indicators including total clearance time, average egress time, average travel time as well as average delay for passengers in each case. The study revealed that different detrainment scenarios would probably result in varied evacuation process. Analysis in this study may provide implications for countermeasures against emergent detrainment in rail tunnel.