Assessment of Addis Ababa Light Rail Transit (LRT) Station Platforms (E-W LINE)
Creators: name: Marta, Mekonnen
Publisher: name: National Academic Digital Repository of Ethiopia
Year: 2015

description: Passengers expect and deserve an experience at railway stations, through service, facilities and access, which adds to their end-to-end journey experience. Research shows that integration with others modes, convenient facilities, readily available information and an environment which is pleasant to move around and wait in are significant influences on both the attractiveness of rail and determinants of passenger satisfaction. In this thesis station platform capacity of Addis Ababa light rail transit for efficient and effective urban transport service provision is examined. This study is designed to help LRT in the development of more secure and capable station, in terms of passenger capacity on platform areas. The assessment considers LOS (level of service) criteria, which is evaluated in two ways first by evaluating the LOS of long term and initial stage of predicted passenger flow and second evaluation of LOS of the proposed platform by considering unused spaces. The evaluation will help to evaluate the capacity and safety of the platform for the forecasted passenger volume of selected stations which are selected based on the maximum and minimum passenger volume. The forecasted passenger volume is directly taken from Preliminary Design for Ethiopia Addis Ababa E-W &amp; S-N(Phase I)Light Rail Transit Project. The analysis conducted on seven stations, and the condition on the platform during the early years is stable because the number of passengers is almost constant. The resulting levels of service of platforms by considering all the proposed platform area ranges between A – D, and for the same stations which considers basic station facilities, the LOS ranges from D – E. The level of service reaches its lowest value for the year (2019-2021) especially on platforms EW10 and EW12, this is basically the result of increasing passenger flow and the analysis considers basic station facilities (benches, trash receptacles, advertising boxes…etc). This shows that when the year increases and with facility provision, the situation on the platform will not be very convenient or comfortable for the alighting and waiting passengers.The analysis showed the difference on the level of service when the platform has basic station facility and without a facility over the years. But for as an overview the analysis showed current and future level of services of selected station platforms. The analysis was conducted only by considering the predicted passenger flow (long term). This could raise a question about the level of service of actual passenger counts on each station which is not coved on this analysis and this will lead to further study. Finally, the analysis recommends three improving techniques. First, by extending the length of platform, second reducing the headway time or increasing the frequency of trains, this technique refers only the station platform capacity not other complications. And the third one is increasing number of cars or extending the length of the train.