Air-rail multimodal disruption management: Rail network supporting air disruptions

This paper presents the application of MultiModX’s Strategic Multimodal Evaluator for assessing an air-rail multi- modal mobility network subject to various disruptions (airport closure, industrial action), considering different degrees of flexi- bility for reaccommodating passengers in their door-to-door jour- ney. Affected passengers are rebooked into alternative itineraries, taking into account the possibility of using rail services. The article presents case studies for the replanning of air and rail network itineraries for mobility within and to/from Spain when Madrid Barajas Airport (LEMD) is affected by an industrial action, and when it experiences significant cancellations (from 25% of flights cancelled up to a total airport closure). A range of different constraints is considered for finding the new itineraries for the affected passengers and reaccommodating them into the alternative train and flight services. The sensitivity analysis of increasing rail network capacity showed a larger role for the rail network, allowing more passengers to be reaccommodated from air to rail. The experiments demonstrated how one network can support another in case of disruptions.