Determining the Impact of Evolving Urban Rail Transit Infrastructure on Service Resilience: A Case Study of the Beijing Subway Network

Abstract

Urban rail transit (URT) networks evolve over time, increasing in complexity and interactions. Small disruptions can lead to cascading failures, impacting commuters and the economy. Addressing this vulnerability requires understanding network evolution for resilience planning. We develop and test the Network Resilience Assessment Framework (NRAF) to assess URT network resilience. Using Beijing Subway data, we find service resilience correlates with network evolution. High station line degree and clustering enhance resilience, while lower scaling factors indicate higher resilience. Promoting URT infrastructure networking can mitigate disruption impacts. Our findings have global implications for enhancing network resilience by densifying connections and reducing hierarchical differences. Contrary to prior studies, URT network evolution does not exhibit adverse diffusion effects.

Keywords: Urban rail transit, transportation infrastructure planning, disruption, network evolution, resilience