Channel usage strategies for managing subway inbound passenger flow with reservation service

Managing inbound passenger flow at subway station entrances during the morning peak is a significant challenge. This study investigates how reservation services, under two channel usage settings, namely exclusive use (EU), where channels are used exclusively by reserved and unreserved passengers, and shared use (SU), where channels can be flexibly shared when spare capacity is available, affect passengers’ service choices and inbound behaviors. A bottleneck model considering values of time (VOT) of passengers is developed. A closed-form solution for optimal capacity split and demand split by minimizing the total system cost is presented. Results show that implementing the reservation service significantly lowers total system cost by reducing queuing. When capacity surplus exists, compared with EU, SU improves capacity utilization, cuts queuing costs, and shortens peak periods, attracting some unreserved passengers to opt for the reserved service. These results offer practical guidance for targeted policy and efficient resource allocation.