Objective Traditional security screening modes are prone to problems such as passenger queuing and waiting area congestion, which have become key factors restricting the improvement of service levels in urban rail transit stations. It is therefore necessary to study the applicability and effectiveness of a new mainstream mode—the centralized image interpretation mode (hereinafter abbreviated as CIIM).

Method First, the CIIM and its operational process are introduced, and the differences between CIIM and the traditional image interpretation mode process are analyzed. Then, the security screening throughput efficiency of passengers carrying baggage is defined, and a method using log-normal distribution function is proposed to fit the screening processing time of passengers, thereby establishing a mathematical model for the improvement rate of passenger throughput efficiency. Finally, taking an urban rail transit station in China as a case study, based on statistical data of passenger processing time at security checkpoints during different time periods, the probability distribution of screening processing time is calculated and fitted, and the improvement rate of passenger throughput efficiency is subsequently obtained.

Result & Conclusion  Compared with the traditional security screening mode, the CIIM can improve the screening throughput efficiency of passengers carrying baggage. For the case station, the improvement rates of passenger throughput efficiency during the morning peak hours, off-peak hours, and evening peak hours are 3.3%, 8.2%, and 10.1%, respectively. The CIIM can significantly enhance the security screening efficiency of urban rail transit stations and achieve workforce reduction and efficiency improvement in urban rail transit.