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Vehicles
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Optimization and Management of Urban Rail Transit Network
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Optimization and Management of Urban Rail Transit Network

A Special Issue of Vehicles (ISSN 2624-8921).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (1 July 2026) | Viewed by 7893

Editors

Dr. Songpo Yang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
College of Metropolitan Transportation, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing 100124, China
Interests: urban rail transit systems; train operation control systems; transportation energy management systems
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Lishan Sun

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
College of Metropolitan Transportation, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing 100124, China
Interests: traffic behavior; intelligent transportation; rail transit
Dr. Danni Cao

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Intelligent Engineering and Automation, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Beijing 100876, China
Interests: transit safety; network modeling and analysis; forecasting

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Urban transit plays a pivotal role in urban transportation networks due to its cost-efficient, environmentally friendly, and fast travel characteristics. It has become indispensable for passenger commuting, prompting major global cities to prioritize investments and construction. However, as transit systems undergo rapid expansion, numerous operational constraints have emerged, including difficulties in infrastructure maintenance, high train frequency, low network operational integration, and challenges in capturing passenger demand. These issues have intensified the pressure to develop new technological solutions. The study of urban transit systems is a multidisciplinary field that typically requires coupling trains and passengers. Developing urban transit systems that are capable of handling dynamic passenger behavior, integrated train–crew scheduling, transit network coordination, and unified monitoring–maintenance has grown increasingly crucial. Such advancements not only enhance the understanding of transit’s collaborative role within transportation networks but also contribute to research on urban travel behavior prediction and evaluation, thereby accelerating the coordinated development of urban transit networks. Numerical simulation, experimental testing, and data analysis also play significant roles in transit research, where virtual testing platforms serve as bridges to expedite new discoveries and developments.

This Special Issue aims to cover various aspects of urban transit train operation, passenger analysis, energy consumption, network construction, integrated systems, and their interactions with infrastructure. This includes the interaction between trains and crew, as well as the interaction between energy and infrastructure. Theoretical, experimental, and computational testing studies (or combinations thereof) are welcome. We encourage submissions involving transit trains and their interactions with passengers, crew, energy, and lines, among others.

Dr. Songpo Yang
Prof. Dr. Lishan Sun
Dr. Danni Cao
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Vehicles is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • train operation
  • crew operation
  • maintenance operation
  • emergency response
  • passenger forecasting
  • passenger analysis
  • energy forecasting
  • energy analysis
  • urban transit hub
  • integrative operation
  • integrative infrastructure
  • integrative service

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Published Papers (7 papers)

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Research

25 pages, 20750 KB  
Article
A Feature-Enhanced Informer Model with Complex Network Representation for Multi-Step Short-Term Passenger Flow Forecasting in Urban Rail Transit
by Gang Li, Junfeng An, Junguo Si, Dong Wang, Wenwen Gao, Yunyun Cen and Hang Yu
Vehicles 2026, 8(8), 181; https://doi.org/10.3390/vehicles8080181 - 6 Aug 2026
Viewed by 293
Abstract
As urban rail transit systems enter a stage of high-quality development, accurate short-term passenger flow forecasting has become essential for efficient operation and management. To improve the accuracy and robustness of multi-step short-term passenger flow forecasting under fluctuating demand conditions, this study develops [...] Read more.
As urban rail transit systems enter a stage of high-quality development, accurate short-term passenger flow forecasting has become essential for efficient operation and management. To improve the accuracy and robustness of multi-step short-term passenger flow forecasting under fluctuating demand conditions, this study develops a feature-enhanced Informer framework that embeds Complex Network Representation (CNR) into the Informer architecture to jointly capture both the topological characteristics of the subway network and spatiotemporal passenger flow dynamics. External factors, including subway schedules and land use around stations, are further integrated to enrich the input features. In addition, the ProbSparse self-attention mechanism is adopted to improve long-sequence dependency modeling, thereby enabling efficient multi-step passenger flow forecasting. Experiments were conducted on the Beijing metro passenger flow dataset from January to October 2024 to evaluate the proposed model. The dataset covered 264 stations and was aggregated at 15 min intervals. Based on historical passenger flow and multi-source features, the model predicts passenger flow over multiple future time steps. The overall evaluation metrics were calculated on the test set and averaged over all test samples and observed stations. The experimental results show that, compared with the standard Transformer model, the proposed model reduces the average prediction error by 16.59% on weekdays and 20.48% on weekends while maintaining stable predictive performance during peak hours. Sensitivity analysis and ablation studies are further conducted to evaluate the model performance across different station types and forecasting horizons. The results demonstrate that the proposed model can provide reliable decision support for intelligent urban rail transit operations, including transport capacity scheduling, passenger service improvement, and operating cost reduction. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Optimization and Management of Urban Rail Transit Network)
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21 pages, 1256 KB  
Article
Optimization of Conventional Bus Routes in Overlapping Bus–Rail Corridors with Urban Rail Transit
by Dongyang Hu, Yuzhu Liang, Xuexiao Feng and Haiyang Huang
Vehicles 2026, 8(7), 164; https://doi.org/10.3390/vehicles8070164 - 14 Jul 2026
Viewed by 1183
Abstract
Overlapping bus–rail corridors between conventional bus lines and urban rail transit are common in integrated public transportation systems. When existing bus routes highly overlap with newly operated rail transit lines, redundant services may reduce resource utilization and increase operating pressure, while inappropriate route [...] Read more.
Overlapping bus–rail corridors between conventional bus lines and urban rail transit are common in integrated public transportation systems. When existing bus routes highly overlap with newly operated rail transit lines, redundant services may reduce resource utilization and increase operating pressure, while inappropriate route adjustment may negatively affect the travel experience of original bus passengers. To address this problem, this paper proposes a constrained passenger-time-oriented optimization model for conventional bus route adjustment under rail transit operation. The model evaluates passenger travel cost while jointly considering passenger flow demand, service continuity, route compactness, and the accessibility requirements of original bus passengers. Based on the proposed model, a bus line generation algorithm is designed to obtain feasible and compact adjustment schemes for co-linear bus segments. The methodological applicability of the proposed method is evaluated through a simulation experiment, and its practical applicability is illustrated through a real-world case study of Xiamen Bus Line 27. The results indicate that the proposed method can reduce passenger travel cost and alleviate redundant competition between conventional bus and rail transit services, while maintaining acceptable service continuity for existing passengers. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Optimization and Management of Urban Rail Transit Network)
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20 pages, 24914 KB  
Article
Influence of Sound Insulation Evolution on Interior Noise for Subway Rail Vehicle’s Carbody
by Jiankun Xie, Minkai Pan, Kunhao Zhao, Hao Lin, Leiming Song and Xiaojun Hu
Vehicles 2026, 8(6), 125; https://doi.org/10.3390/vehicles8060125 - 4 Jun 2026
Viewed by 1544
Abstract
As the operational service lifespan of subway rail vehicles increased, the sound insulation of the carbody inevitably deteriorated, leading to heightened noise levels inside the vehicles and significantly compromising passenger comfort. Therefore, the impact of the subway carbody’s sound insulation performance on interior [...] Read more.
As the operational service lifespan of subway rail vehicles increased, the sound insulation of the carbody inevitably deteriorated, leading to heightened noise levels inside the vehicles and significantly compromising passenger comfort. Therefore, the impact of the subway carbody’s sound insulation performance on interior noise throughout its service life was studied. The research of this paper was carried out by combining experimental and simulation methods. Through experimental testing, it examined the sound insulation levels of different vehicle components, including the door, side wall and underframe. The carbody sound insulation with different operational lifetimes was obtained. Subsequently, an acoustic simulation model for interior noise in subway vehicles was established via the statistical energy method, and measured data was used to ensure reliability. Finally, based on the simulation model, the interior noise values under different operational service lifespans were obtained. The influence patterns of varying sound insulation performance across different carbody components on interior noise levels were analyzed. The influence of the change in sound insulation over the operational lifespan on the interior noise was obtained. The findings of this paper hold practical engineering significance for developing noise control strategies and maintenance plans for subway rail vehicles. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Optimization and Management of Urban Rail Transit Network)
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18 pages, 1815 KB  
Article
An Integer Linear Programming Model for the Crew Re-Scheduling Problem Under Crew Unavailability in Urban Rail Transit
by Songpo Yang, Yumiao Wu and Mengjiao Zhao
Vehicles 2026, 8(5), 104; https://doi.org/10.3390/vehicles8050104 - 7 May 2026
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 521
Abstract
The crew re-scheduling problem (CRSP) is a critical challenge in the operation and management of urban rail transit (URT) systems, especially when restoring service after disruptions. When a crew member unexpectedly leaves duty due to emergency events like illness, the train assigned to [...] Read more.
The crew re-scheduling problem (CRSP) is a critical challenge in the operation and management of urban rail transit (URT) systems, especially when restoring service after disruptions. When a crew member unexpectedly leaves duty due to emergency events like illness, the train assigned to that crew may get stranded in one operating direction, which will block the following trains operating in the same direction. To address this issue, this study first introduces a closed-loop driving strategy. This strategy reallocates limited crew resources across both operating directions to maintain the basic operations of the URT system during emergency periods. On this basis, an integer linear programming (ILP) model is developed to describe the dynamic adjustments of train departure times. Valid inequalities are incorporated to generate feasible crew task sets rapidly, and the proposed model is solved by using Gurobi. To meet the stringent time requirements for rescheduling during disruptions, an improved greedy algorithm is further designed to manage crew assignment under emergency conditions efficiently. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed approach is evaluated through a real-world case study based on the Beijing urban rail transit network. The results demonstrate that the proposed model can respond rapidly within 30 min after an incident occurs. It not only limits the generation time of each crew task to within 1 min but also achieves a relative working balance between crews by combining short-duration tasks. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Optimization and Management of Urban Rail Transit Network)
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17 pages, 12216 KB  
Article
Train Track Change Detection Method Based on IMU Heading Angular Velocity
by Weiwei Song, Yuning Liu, Xinke Zhao, Yi Zhang, Xinye Dai and Shimin Zhang
Vehicles 2026, 8(4), 80; https://doi.org/10.3390/vehicles8040080 - 3 Apr 2026
Viewed by 1016
Abstract
Train track occupancy detection is essential for railway operation safety and dispatching, yet GNSS-based positioning and track matching can degrade or fail in turnouts and station yards due to multipath, interference, and dense track layouts. This paper presents an IMU-only method to discriminate [...] Read more.
Train track occupancy detection is essential for railway operation safety and dispatching, yet GNSS-based positioning and track matching can degrade or fail in turnouts and station yards due to multipath, interference, and dense track layouts. This paper presents an IMU-only method to discriminate track-switching events during turnout passage by exploiting the transient change in heading angular velocity. The Z-axis gyroscope measurement (approximately aligned with the track-plane normal) is used as a heading-rate proxy, and a lightweight indicator is constructed from the difference between a short-window moving average and the full-run mean. The full-run mean further serves as an in situ approximation of the gyroscope zero bias, alleviating the need for pre-calibration and improving robustness to systematic drift. A fixed discrimination threshold is determined from stationary gyroscope noise statistics, and the minimum effective operating speed is derived by combining gyro noise characteristics with the kinematic relationship among train speed, turnout curvature radius, and heading rate. Field experiments conducted from January to April 2025 on three railway sections covering 27 turnouts (300 turnout-passage events) show that, using a constant threshold T0=0.002rad/s, the proposed method achieves 100% track-switching discrimination accuracy within 5–40 km/h, without requiring track maps, GNSS, or prior databases. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Optimization and Management of Urban Rail Transit Network)
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13 pages, 4295 KB  
Article
Optimization Research on Left–Right Deviation in Lifting Height of SQS-300K Tunnel and Bridge Clearance Cleaning Vehicle
by Tao You, Hao Ding, Zhongwei Ni and Youshui Lu
Vehicles 2026, 8(4), 75; https://doi.org/10.3390/vehicles8040075 - 2 Apr 2026
Viewed by 1269
Abstract
This study conducts an in-depth investigation into the left–right lifting height deviation in the main lifting and lining device of the SQS-300K tunnel and bridge clearance cleaning vehicle under specific working conditions. Through field measurements and theoretical analysis, the research highlights the typical [...] Read more.
This study conducts an in-depth investigation into the left–right lifting height deviation in the main lifting and lining device of the SQS-300K tunnel and bridge clearance cleaning vehicle under specific working conditions. Through field measurements and theoretical analysis, the research highlights the typical characteristics of this issue in transition curves (with a maximum deviation of 50 mm) and its adverse effects on track geometry. A systematic hydraulic–electrical synergistic optimization scheme using independent cylinder control is proposed to address the problem. Field tests show that the maximum deviation is reduced to below 10 mm after optimization. The findings not only resolve the technical challenges encountered in the field application of the SQS-300K machine but also provide a theoretical foundation and practical technical support for the optimized design, precise control, and condition maintenance of lifting and lining devices in similar large-scale railway maintenance machinery. This contribution is significant for ensuring railway operational safety. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Optimization and Management of Urban Rail Transit Network)
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23 pages, 7851 KB  
Article
Mapping Rail-Joint Straightness to Passenger Ride Comfort via Field Measurement and Multibody Dynamic Modelling
by Peigang Li, Lu Wang, Caihao Lan, Xiaojie Sun, Ze He and Zexuan Liu
Vehicles 2025, 7(4), 148; https://doi.org/10.3390/vehicles7040148 - 1 Dec 2025
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 896
Abstract
The straightness of rail joints is one of the critical factors affecting passenger comfort in high-speed railways, and investigating its influence on the dynamic performance of the vehicle–track system and riding comfort is of great significance. In this study, long-term field measurements were [...] Read more.
The straightness of rail joints is one of the critical factors affecting passenger comfort in high-speed railways, and investigating its influence on the dynamic performance of the vehicle–track system and riding comfort is of great significance. In this study, long-term field measurements were conducted at a turnout joint of a newly constructed high-speed railway in China, combined with multibody dynamics simulations, to systematically analyze the long-term evolution of rail joint straightness under various conditions, including pre- and post-grinding, joint commissioning, official operation, and extreme weather. Based on normalized data processing, the root mean square (RMS) index of joint straightness was extracted for feature quantification. Together with vertical acceleration and the Sperling index obtained from vehicle–track coupled dynamics simulations, a quantitative relationship between straightness and comfort was established. The results indicate that the cubic polynomial fitting method can effectively characterize the nonlinear mapping between the RMS of joint straightness and the Sperling index, further revealing a critical threshold at approximately 0.4 mm RMS beyond which vehicle running stability deteriorates and ride comfort significantly worsens. This study provides a reliable theoretical basis and engineering reference for the evaluation of rail joint quality and the optimization of maintenance strategies. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Optimization and Management of Urban Rail Transit Network)
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