Evaluation of Passenger Connections in Air-rail Multimodal Operations

Efficient cooperation between transport stakeholders (airlines, rail and airport operators) is essential for improved multimodal journey times and passenger experience, ensuring their connectivity, particularly during disruptions. There is a need for a platform where solutions supporting multimodality can be evaluated. This paper presents the extension of Mercury, a detailed open-source air transport agent-based model, to include rail network modelling capabilities, enabling the evaluation of multimodal itineraries. New agents are introduced to simulate train operations (arrivals, departures), to handle multimodal transfers, to represent airport processes, and to rebook passengers when connections are missed. By modelling processes during transfers even when the infrastructures are not collocated (e.g. ground mobility between the train station and airport, processes inside the airport), solutions for improving multimodal connections, such as expedited airport processes for delayed passengers, can be evaluated. Thus, the new simulation platform is a multimodal modelling and evaluation tool that comprehensively describes the impact of solutions (or policies) to support multimodal journeys. Due to the buffers on multimodal itineraries, even in the case of disruptions, many missed connections are caused by just a few minutes. In this context, two mechanisms are modelled and evaluated for a multimodal operational environment set in Madrid: prioritising delayed passengers in airport processes, which can significantly reduce missed connections and total experienced delays; and a more reliable dedicated bus line linking the air and rail infrastructure, which would make the connection between modes more convenient and can also contribute to reduced missed connections.