A case study on the underground rapid transport system (URTS) for the international airport hubs: Planning, application and lessons learnt

摘要

A large number of international airport hubs are now under expansion to have two or more terminals and additional satellites or midfield concourses under the pressure of quick and massive growth of air traffic volume. As a result, the problems of passengers’ long walking between buildings, ground traffic congestion in the air side and low operational efficiency of transportation are becoming more and more prominent. Attributed to the merits of underground transport, the underground rapid transport system (URTS) has emerged as a sensible solution to provide a safe, accessible and pleasant way for passengers, reducing the congestions, flight delay and enhancing the operational efficiency as well. In order to better understand the merits of URTS and the way of its application in the airport hubs, this paper firstly explored the present status of URTS in airports around the world and the urgent need of URTS for the international airport hubs was addressed. Then, the lessons learnt from actual projects and recommendations were summarized and provided through a comprehensive case study of the planning and design of URTS in the expansion of Shanghai Pudong International Airport (SPIA). It is recommended that more importance should be attached to the URTS in the planning of airport expansion with a long-term view. The attempt, adopting the urban underground railway system into the URTS in the expansion of SPIA, could also provide a valuable reference for the development of URTS in other international airport hubs.