Abstract
Rapid transit systems (RTSs) will increasingly play an important role in the daily commute. However, RTSs are complex systems and are susceptible to degradation over time, and recurring RTS service disruptions are inevitable. Therefore, resilience should be considered in the design of an RTS network, to provide commuters alternative paths that enable them to work around service disruptions. This paper proposes a commuter-centric resilience index for RTS networks that is based on the concept of an acceptable commute time. The proposed index was applied to the Singapore Mass Rapid Transit network, and the findings revealed that the introduction of each new rail line increased the resilience of the RTS network. Ring lines or orbital lines appeared to be most effective in improving network resilience. The resilience index can also be determined for individual stations to help planners identify gaps in the RTS network and to provide useful insight for land use and transport planning. The proposed index would be applicable to RTS networks in other cities or regions, but while information on an RTS network can be sourced from the public domain, computation of the index requires the corresponding commuter trip data.
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