Exploring passengers' behaviour in an underground train station under emergency condition

Passenger crowd behaviours and safety under emergency situation in train stations have been a major challenge in theory and practice. In past, several natural or man-made disasters in major train stations have prompted the mass evacuation of passengers, resulting in fatalities and injuries. This paper explores the behaviours of train passengers in an emergency evacuation and examines two crucial theoretical issues on the passengers' evacuation that includes reactive vs. proactive behaviours and cooperative vs. competitive behaviours. Further, passenger perceived ability to get out safely during an emergency is also examined. Based on a survey of 1134 train passengers, it was found that respondents were, on average, more likely to be reactive (e.g., wait for instructions over the public address system) than proactive (e.g., use emergency button) in an emergency situation. Interestingly, over 90% of the respondents feel that they can get out safely in case of emergency evacuation. In terms of demographic differences in behaviors, results from the ordered logit models demonstrate that there are significant differences in the evacuation behaviours between males and females but not among the different age groups. Compared to females, males were less likely to use emergency call buttons, call the emergency phone number or wait at the assembly area. Also, males were more likely to display competitive behaviour in the event of an emergency evacuation. Our findings can assist managers of emergency response in developing appropriate strategies and training, and in designing solutions and education campaigns for efficacious evacuation. Further, the results are valuable resource for developing mathematical models intended to simulate passengers' evacuation in a train station.