The development of a spatial parameters (SP) model towards the macroscopic pedestrian assessment of a railway station design

Abstract

Paper presented at the 28th Annual Southern African Transport Conference 6 - 9 July 2009 "Sustainable Transport", CSIR International Convention Centre, Pretoria, South Africa.

Intersite Property Management Services, together with the SARCC, have recently embarked on a country wide programme to upgrade commuter rail stations in South Africa as part of a larger process towards improving the commuter rail service in the country.The lack of infrastructure investment over many years has not only resulted in a declining service and loss in patronage but has led to a hiatus in station design philosophies. This paper presents a generic Spatial Parameters (SP) - model which has been specifically developed and applied to the design of the Athlone, Heideveld and Langa (AHL) railway stations in Cape Town, South Africa.The model has since received further application in the preliminary spatial assessments of other station designs such as Khayelitsha and Nyanga stations (Arcus Gibb, 2008) and Windermere station (ITS, 2008). The SP-model is an Excel based spreadsheet that calculates station infrastructure sizing requirements in order to accommodate the station design peak flow rates at desired levels of service using macroscopic principles. It is intended that the SP-model provide an indication of the initial station sizing requirements but should be supported with further microscopic pedestrian modelling. As there are dependant relationships between certain spatial parameters, the spreadsheet is proving to be a useful tool but is still to be considered a "work in progress" model. It is believed that there is a definitive role for the SP-model as a first-order model, which together with microscopic pedestrian modelling will improve the station design process in South Africa.