Pedestrian traffic flow operations on a platform: observations and comparison with simulation tool SimPed

Delft University of Technology, in co-operation with Holland Railconsult, has developed the tool SimPed for simulating pedestrian operations in transfer stations. SimPed models all processes that are related to pedestrians inside a transfer station, such as walking, performing activities and route and activity location choice. In order to validate pedestrian flow modelling in SimPed and to study pedestrian traffic flow operations on a platform in detail, observations have been collected on a platform of a Dutch railway station. These observations concerned boarding and alighting times, (individual) walking times, and levels-of-service (indicating the number of pedestrians present on a part of the platform over time). This paper describes this data collection effort and discusses in detail the results of the study, Such as numbers of boarding and alighting passengers, individual walking times and densities on the platform. Finally, a comparison is made between the observations and modelling results of SimPed, in order to show the validity of SimPed concerning pedestrian traffic flow operations.