Conference Agenda

Passenger crowding in urban rail networks creates severe operational challenges and safety risks for transit stations, often causing platform overcrowding and train delays. These crowding issues are most critical at major transfer stations where crossing pedestrian flows disrupt the movement of passengers. At these locations, a large number of passengers get off trains while bi-directional escalators continuously move people from lower platform to the upper platform. This creates a major conflict point between passengers entering the platform and those trying to use the escalators. To reduce these conflicts and improve passenger flow, this study evaluates different physical barrier layouts near escalators in the peak hours. Physical barriers play an important role in guiding pedestrian movement and organizing queues, but how the layout of these barriers affect passenger movement has not been widely studied.

This research develops a pedestrian model of BTS Siam Station, one of the busiest interchange stations in the Bangkok Mass Transit System network, by using PTV VISSIM pedestrian simulation. Seven distinct physical barrier layouts applicable to escalator entry zones are designed and comparatively analyzed under peak-hour operational conditions. This research evaluates passenger density for each physical barrier layout to determine which configuration performs the best. The study further validates simulation outcomes through real-world observation of passenger behavior at BTS Siam Station, establishing the practical applicability of the proposed design interventions.

Results demonstrate that barrier configuration significantly influences passenger distribution, queue organization, and boarding efficiency at escalator interfaces. The findings identify that center long openside is the optimal barrier configuration, which successfully reduces maximum passenger density in the upper platform by 18.27% and reduces average density by 22.08% compared to the current baseline, effectively mitigating crowd accumulation while maintaining orderly and safe boarding behavior. This research shows how modifications to physical barrier configurations can improve pedestrian flow in high-demand urban rail systems. The study also highlights the value of simulation-based approaches for evaluating and optimizing pedestrian infrastructure before physical implementation.