Impact of platform edge doors on passengers' boarding and alighting time and platform behavior

Platform edge doors (PEDs) are becoming an international benchmark for metro systems because of their potential to facilitate the transition to fully automated train operation and to reduce the social and operating costs of accidents and obstacles on the platform–train interface. However, there are concerns that the presence of PEDs may lengthen the dwell time; this result could severely hinder service reliability in high-frequency services such as those operated by the London Underground. This paper explores the impact of PEDs on boarding and alighting time and on passenger behavior from two perspectives: through laboratory experiments under controlled conditions and through the analysis of video footage recorded on the London Underground network. Both approaches led to similar conclusions, showing that the presence of PEDs does not have a detrimental impact on the boarding and alighting time and does affect passenger behavior at the platform, inducing a more organized boarding and alighting process in which boarders wait beside the doors rather than in front of them and give way to alighters more often than without PEDs.