Coordinated strategies for passenger evacuation during metro disruptions

After a metro disruption, a substantial number of passengers often remain stranded despite the prompt deployment of bridging bus services. Previous studies have primarily focused on optimizing these bus services in isolation, with limited attention given to potential collaboration with short-turning metro operations. This study systematically explores the collaborative evacuation of passengers during sudden metro disruptions. We propose a collaborative scheduling model that integrates bridging bus services with short-turning metro operations. By synchronizing bus dispatching with adjusted metro schedules, the model simultaneously accommodates both stranded and newly arriving passengers. To solve the model efficiently, we develop an improved sparrow search algorithm to determine optimal scheduling strategies. A case study based on real-world data from the Fuzhou Metro system in China demonstrates that the proposed approach enables transit operators to proactively design coordinated metro-bus evacuation plans, significantly reducing total passenger waiting times along affected routes.