A new global method for identifying urban rail transit key station during COVID-19: A case study of Beijing, China

The rapid-developed COVID-19 has been defined as a global emergency by the World Health Organization. Meanwhile, various evidence indicates there is a positive correlation between the transmission and population density, especially in closed and semi-closed space. The urban rail transit, as one of the major mode choices for people to commute in big cities, carries thousands of passengers every day with relatively closed and limited space, which provides favorable conditions for the spread of the virus. If the surrounding area of any station was disrupted under COVID-19, not only the individual line but also the entire urban rail transit network will have the risk to be affected. Therefore, it is necessary to identify and explore the distribution law of key stations during the spreading process of the COVID-19 virus in the urban rail transit network during the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on the spatial distribution of epidemic area and the demand of urban rail transit passengers, we have proposed a construction method of the rail transit network and use the improved shortest path algorithm to determine the route diversity index of each station which indicates its importance in the urban rail transit network. On this basis, we identify the key stations of the Beijing rail transit network to ensure that passengers avoid high-risk stations during the epidemic. The results show that the number of reasonable routes between any two stations is 1 to 5 during the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, the routes diversity index of the Beijing rail transit network was 1.235 during the COVID-19 pandemic and 2.2574 in the normal period. According to the reasonable route diversity index, we have identified the key stations of the Beijing rail transit network during the COVID-19, such as Qi-Li-Zhuang station.