Phase transition like behaviors of Propagation of Passenger Stranding phenomena in Subway Networks

Abstract

The subway as the most important transportation for daily urban commuting is a typical non-equilibrium complex system, composed of 2 types of basic units with service relationship. One challenge to operate it is passengers be stranded at stations, which arise from the spatiotemporal mismatch of supply scale and demand scale. More seriously, there is a special phenomenon of the propagation of passenger stranding (PPS) by forming stranded stations clusters, which significantly reduces the service efficiency. In this study, Beijing subway as an example is studied to reveal the nature of PPS phenomena from a view point of statistical physics. The simulation results demonstrate phase-transition-like behaviors depending on the ratio of service supply scale and demand scale. The transition point can quantitatively characterize the resilience failure threshold of service. The eigen microstate method is used to extracting the fundamental patterns of PPS phenomena. Moreover, this study offers a theoretical foundation for strategies to improve service, such as topological planning and train timetable optimization. The methodology developed in present work has significant implications for study of other service systems.