Research on Traction Energy Cost Intensity and Passenger Transport Efficiency of a Metro Train

Metro takes the most part of energy consumption in urban public service systems and lots of researchers force on the energy-efficient methods for the unban rail transport. Based on train traction calculations and computer-aided simulations, this research studies the transports of a metro train on a certain metro line in city B to analyze the relationship between the target speed and formation of this train and its traction energy cost intensity and passenger transport efficiency. The Comprehensive Evaluation Index (CEI) is proposed to analyze integrated optimization strategies of urban rail transport by calculating the traction energy cost and the technical operation time. It is found that the target speed should be set with the consideration of the attribute of the line and the formation scale of the trains may also be determined by the passenger volume. What's more, the ratio of the motor cars of a metro train operating on a rail line in off-peak hours prefers 0.50 for both saving traction energy and ensuring a relatively high passenger transport efficiency. Finally, this research optimizes the transport plan of the trains running on the studied metro line according to the passenger travel demands in different daily operation time periods to decrease the general traction energy cost on the premise of a reasonable efficiency of passenger transport. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd.