Analysis of metro network performance from a complex network perspective

In this paper, the performance of metro networks is studied from a network science perspective. We review the structural efficiency of metro networks on the basis of a passenger's intuitive routing strategy that optimizes the number of transfers and the distance traveled. A new node centrality measure, called node occupying probability, is introduced for evaluating the level of utilization of stations. The robustness of a metro network is analyzed under several attack scenarios. Six metro networks (Beijing, London, Paris, Hong Kong, Tokyo and New York) are compared in terms of the node occupying probability and a few other performance parameters. Simulation results show that the New York metro system has better topological efficiency, the Tokyo and Hong Kong systems are the most robust under random attack and target attack, respectively.