During COVID-19, certain means were proposed to improve crowd management in the Birmingham New Street railway station. To validate the current system of crowd management in the station, this paper examines the rail passenger flow in the concourse of the Birmingham New Street railway station and the passenger interactions and queueing phenomena associated with it, mainly at the ticket machines, offices and gates, prior to and during the implementation of COVID-19 measures. The passenger behaviour in the concourse of the station was simulated using the SIMUL8 event-based simulation modelling package. Three different scenarios were modelled to analyse the changes and impacts from pre-COVID-19 and within the COVID-19 context. The results revealed that passenger behaviour in railway stations is changing due to COVID-19. Specifically, passengers are more likely to buy tickets using their smartphones or online prior to or whilst entering the station so that they can go through the station concourse with minimal queuing times and avoid contact with a facility of common use at the station, whereas those without tickets are more likely to be in a queue to buy their tickets in the station. For pre-COVID, the results showed that even with a reduced number of ticket machines, overcrowding inside the station was unlikely to occur, as 80% of all passengers in the simulation completed service within a 15-minute time frame. However, during implementation of COVID-19 measures, as the number of passengers using the station dropped significantly and more passengers bought their tickets using their smartphones and/or online, queueing times were also shorter, and thus passengers spent less time in the system. The simulation results were in accordance with the expected practice; hence the effectiveness of the simulation model was verified. Overall, as a result of this study, the following suggestions to improve crowd management in a railway passenger station concourse are proposed: encourage passengers to purchase tickets on their smartphones, remove ticket gates and replace them with sensors, and provide a one-way passenger flow system in the main concourse of the station.

在 COVID-19 期间，提出了某些措施来改善伯明翰新街火车站的人群管理。为了验证车站当前的人群管理系统，本文研究了伯明翰新街火车站大厅的铁路客流以及与之相关的乘客互动和排队现象，主要是在售票机、办公室和大门处，在实施 COVID-19 措施之前和期间。使用基于事件的 SIMUL8 模拟建模包模拟车站大厅中的乘客行为。对三种不同的情景进行了建模，以分析 COVID-19 之前和 COVID-19 环境中的变化和影响。结果显示，由于 COVID-19，火车站的乘客行为正在发生变化。具体来说，乘客在进站前或进站时更有可能使用智能手机或在线购票，这样他们就可以以最少的排队时间通过车站大厅，避免接触车站的常用设施，而没有购票的乘客则更有可能在车站排队买票。对于新冠疫情之前的情况，结果表明，即使售票机数量减少，车站内也不太可能出现过度拥挤，因为模拟中 80% 的乘客在 15 分钟内完成了服务。然而，在实施 COVID-19 措施期间，由于使用车站的乘客数量显着下降，更多乘客使用智能手机和/或在线购票，排队时间也缩短了，因此乘客在系统中花费的时间更少。模拟结果符合预期；从而验证了仿真模型的有效性。总体而言，作为本研究的结果，提出了以下改进铁路客运站大厅人群管理的建议：鼓励乘客在智能手机上购票，拆除检票口并用传感器代替，并提供单程乘客车站主大厅的人流系统。