Performance Study for the Amsterdam Airport Schiphol Bus Station
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PERFORMANCE STUDY FOR THE AMSTERDAM AIRPORT SCHIPHOL BUS STATION CREATING A BUS STATION SIMULATION TOOL TO OBTAIN PERFORMANCE SCORES December 14th, 2011 MSc. thesis of: Mark Alexander van Klaveren Transport, infrastructure & logistics at the Delft University of Technology Thesis committee: Prof.dr.ir. S.P. Hoogendoorn (TU Delft) Dr.ir. J.H. Baggen (TU Delft) Dr.ir. W. Daamen (TU Delft) Ing. S. de Lange (Schiphol Group) In cooperation with: Samenwerking Innovatieve Mainport (SIM), Schiphol Group Performance study for the Amsterdam Airport Schiphol bus station TU Delft || Schiphol Group N.V. 1 Performance study for the Amsterdam Airport Schiphol bus station EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Introduction This thesis focuses on the bus station of Amsterdam Airport Schiphol in The Netherlands. A performance study is performed on three criteria: the bus station’s throughput of traffic flow, or: coping with capacity, the safety on the bus lane and quality of the infrastructure as perceived by its user. There is a projected growth of public transportation through Schiphol Plaza when looking at increasing numbers of air travelers, employees and use of especially the HOV (high quality public transportation) bus lines. There is no knowledge yet on how long the current bus station layout can cope with this growth. This needs to be made clear and a possible solution for appearing bottlenecks needs to be provided. Methodology The research on the bus station performance requires methodology that fulfills the requirements of providing performance scores on current and future scenarios for its capacity, quality and safety. For capacity scores it is determined to use average bus delays as suffered at the bus station as units, where also a percentage of buses exceeding the set threshold of 30 seconds delay is taken as a second scoring quantification. For the criterion of quality it is focused on the quality of the infrastucture as perceived by the traveler. The one quality feature that is chosen to be quantified is bus platform pedestrian density, Using the definitions of these criteria the selected method is a microscopic time-and space-contiuous traffic simulation in the form of a tool from-scratch. This tool has the ability of simulating individual buses as well as individual pedestrians. The tool will be able to generate the passengers from and to the buses. The arrivals of buses and pedestrians is linked to input files including bus timetables, train timetables and bus characteristics. Analysis of the current bus station layout For the performance up until 2040 use has been of three passenger growth scenarios: the base scenario based on Schiphol prognoses, a 20% higher growth scenario and a 20% lower growth scenario. Application of the simulation tool to Schiphol Plaza’s bus station leads to the observation that although no all-congesting bottlenecks appear in the future until 2040, the performance for capacity and safety soon dip below the set thresholds: in 2027 the quantified safety risk has doubled and in 2040 over 60% of the buses suffers a delay of more than 30 seconds at the bus station. To maintain the quality of the bus station design concepts are provided that could improve the criteria to acceptable levels. From the results follows that special attention should be given to the bus-pedestrian conflicts Design concepts for the bus station Three groups of three proposals are considered: solutions in the form of capacity expansion, concepts for pedestrian rerouting and concepts of reducing bus-pedestrian conflicts. Of each group one is selected through Multi-Criteria Analysis (MCA). The chosen design concepts are: TU Delft || Schiphol Group N.V. 2 Performance study for the Amsterdam Airport Schiphol bus station Expansion of the bus station by replacing the parallel lanes for public use, Kiss & Ride and the parking garage with a second dedicated bus lane with bus stops. This is a doubling of the capacity in theory. Creating an alternative access point from the traverse crossing the roads at the bus station towards the bus platform. By making this the only allowed access point all bus-pedestrian conflicts on the roads are removed. Creating an access point from the bus station platforms underneath the bus station. All bus users coming from the train station have a direct access point and do not need to cross any roads. The pedestrian flow at the zebra crossing is severely decreased. All three concepts are analyzed making use of the simulation tool. They are compared on the same criteria again and a MCA is made. Results The traverse access point has the best score of the three design concepts and the zero-alternative. It outscores the other options on the scores of throughput and safety, as well as being less costly than creating a new bus lane or a access through the solid ground towards the train station. Conclusions More than might be expected is the interaction between bus and pedestrian leading in the ever growing congestion on Schiphol Plaza’s bus station. Removing this interaction has appeared to be a realistic option and has proven to be highly successful. With such a measure there will be no need for a capacity expansion, since the road capacity is not always leading in the question about bus station capacity. This appears to be the case at Schiphol and solutions are offered. Also does the simulation tool give the opportunity to test variants of the bus station by varying bus stop locations, timetables or pedestrians crossings. It is a user-friendly tool that can help Schiphol as well in obtaining more insight for the new 2025 Master Plan. Recommendations Following this research further could be looked into the offered concepts by more closely estimating the costs and exact implications of the construction. Also regarding the simulation tool there is more detailed data that could be obtained through on site research towards identifying pedestrians, their origin and destination. Together with further enhancement of the simulation tool even more possible solutions might appear. TU Delft || Schiphol Group N.V. 3 Performance study for the Amsterdam Airport Schiphol bus station PREFACE Presented here is the thesis of the graduation research (TIL5050) on the bus station at Schiphol Plaza, the main entrance of Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. The researched is conducted as the master thesis for Delft University of Technology master ‘Transport, Infrastructure and Logistics’. The research is conducted as commissioned by the institute SIM (Samenwerking Innovatieve Mainport, or ‘Cooperation Innovative Mainport’), which is an alliance between the aviation related parties Delft University of Technology, Schiphol Group N.V., TNO (Dutch knowledge institute for applied research), National Aerospace Laboratory (NLS) and the Dutch flag carrier Koninklijke Luchtvaartmaatschappij (KLM). It provides a platform for graduating students to help Schiphol in their goal of being an innovative mainport in Europe. Through this platform, based at Schiphol Airport, the thesis is organized, but the source of this project lies at the division of Traffic & Transportation, which is in turn a subdivision of Passenger Services at the airport. Traffic & Transportation is the division responsible for all landside activity related to Schiphol’s accessibility. This includes the contracts with the Dutch Railways (NS) for the rail station, the management of the access roads, taxi contracting and the bus station. At Traffic & Transportation Sjoerd de Lange has been the primary mentor, who has been able to provide information and support. Acknowledgements This leads to the acknowledgements for those who have supported me in realizing this thesis. First of all ,I highly appreciate the support of I have received from the graduation committee. From the TU Delft: Winnie Daamen (Civil Engineering, Transport & Planning), John Baggen (TBM, Transport & Logistics), and Serge Hoogendoorn (Civil Engineering, Transport & Planning). I would like to thank you for the guidance I have been given in this proces. The directions were very helpful in creating this thesis. Special thanks also to Sjoerd de Lange for all the support he has given during my time at Schiphol. At any given moment he had time to answer questions or provide me with information and data. It was also a very pleasant time with the whole division of Traffic & Transportation. Thank you to all the colleagues there and at the division of ADI, the home base of SIM and a very welcoming place for graduating students. Also the other graduates at Schiphol, friends and family have been very supportive for which I would like to thank all. Mark van Klaveren th Delft, December 13 2011 TU Delft || Schiphol Group N.V. 4 Performance study for the Amsterdam Airport Schiphol bus station TU Delft || Schiphol Group N.V. 5 Performance study for the Amsterdam Airport Schiphol bus station CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ................................................................................................................................. 2 PREFACE .................................................................................................................................................... 4 1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................... 8 1.1 GENERAL INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................. 8 1.2 PROBLEM DEFINITION.................................................................................................................