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U.S. Department of Transportation U.S. Department of Transportation Icon United States Department of Transportation United States Department of Transportation

Evaluation of Egress Models for Passenger Rail Cars for Emergency and Non-Emergency Scenarios

Document Series:
Technical Reports
Author:
  • Federal Railroad Administration
Report Number
DOT/FRA/ORD-22/11
Office
RDI-22
Subject:
Rolling Stock
Keywords:
Rail car, egress model, simulation, passenger evacuations, passenger rail, analysis, Pathfinder, railEXODUS, rolling stock
Document

The ability to accurately predict and analyze passenger evacuations from rail cars is an important component of the Federal Railroad Administration’s (FRA) mission to enable the safe, reliable, and efficient movement of people and goods throughout the United States.  Multiple commercial software packages are available for modeling pedestrian behavior in both non-emergency and emergency conditions.  This study focused on two programs, railEXODUS and Pathfinder, and performed a detailed analysis of both programs with respect to their performance and features.  In addition, researchers conducted the analysis using both egress models to assess the impact of fire conditions on the egress times.


Last updated: Friday, February 18, 2022