To reduce workload, the PTI feature is integrated with the Data Template. The OD Matrix worksheet can be used to set Services as Final Destinations and a new Platform-Train Settings worksheet has been added, to help specify all the Services associated with a Platform, in detail.

Data Template settings related to the Platform-Train Interface feature are described below.

OD Matrix

You must add Services as Origins and/or Destinations in the OD Matrix worksheet, as you would for standard Entrances and Exits. Depending on how the Service generates and receives passengers to and from the modelled station, it may be both an Origin and a Destination. Accordingly, it should appear as a row and/or a column entry. Entities assigned the same Service as both their Origin and their Destination become Stayers and remain inside Trains, when they arrive.

Data Profiles

As before, you must specify model start and end times, before clicking the Create Arrival Profiles from OD Matrix button. To specify arrivals manually, there should be multiple entries in the Time Intervals [hh:mm:ss] row. Profiles needing different time intervals can be created by leaving an empty row in the table and specifying a new set of time intervals, before adding the profiles that use them, underneath.

Platform-Train Settings

To adjust the desired number of tables in the Platform-Train Settings worksheet, from the Add-ins menu, click the smiley face icon, while the Platform-Train settings tab is selected. The Restore Origin Groups window appears. In the Number of Tables to be Restored/Created field, type the number of Platforms in the model. That number of Platform-related tables are created.

Create Distribution

Distributions let you define the proportion of entities arriving on a Service (alighters and - if separately defined - stayers, too) that will arrive with a Train associated with it, from different locations along its length. To do this, select Yes from the Create Distribution? drop-down field and type percentages across cells in a row (left-to-right representing front-to-back of Train, even if reversed – see two diagrams, below), to the level of detail wanted. With no distribution defined, entities originating on a Train are distributed across it evenly.

This table permits definition of a frequency-based timetable, often used by metropolitan transit operators. As well as the Noise and Minimum service interval parameters, already present in the Origin Settings worksheet, you can set the EDOT (effective door open time) at each Platform. At present, this parameter is constant for all Services associated with a Platform. So, if you want different EDOTs for different Services arriving at the same Platform, you must edit profiles in LEGION Model Builder once the Data Template is imported.

Availability Profiles based on the randomisation of Services at their Platform may also be specified, for example, if one wanted entities to wait in front of an announcement board until five minutes before Service departures, to represent platform announcements in a mainline station hall.

Before importing the Data Template, using the Data Import Manager, you should ensure that:

1. Services in the Data Template are already defined in the model.
2. Trains are assigned to Services.
3. Services are assigned to Platforms.

Train type must be defined for each Service, while other information may be left blank. Once this is done, the Data Import feature automatically generates Service timetables and assigns the correct number of alighters, boarders and stayers to each Service.

Platform Entry Distributions

Platform Entry Distributions are specific Passenger Distributions paired to where Entities enter a Platform (the Platform Entry Point). These distributions can be assigned to Platform Entry Zones in LEGION Model Builder, which can be optionally created when a Platform is built.

This facilitates tailoring waiting behaviours to real waiting patterns applicable to your model. For instance, passengers entering a platform are likely to remain closer to the entry point, and less likely to wait further away.

Different Platform Entry Points have different locations on a Platform, so the distributions from each along the Platform are likely to differ.

Train configuration can often vary by Service and affects where people wait on a Platform for their Service. For instance, different numbers of Carriages, or different stopping points along the Platform.

Multiple Distributions can be defined to cover these different distribution patterns.

You can define as many as you need in the Platform Entry Distributions worksheet of the Data Template.

Each row in the worksheet table represents a separate, named Passenger Distribution, and each column in a row of the distribution table represents one bin of a distribution histogram. The data is used to create Passenger Distribution Profiles when imported into LEGION Model Builder.

Composition must total 100%, only numbers are allowed but empty cells are permitted, and each Passenger Distribution Name must be unique within the Platform Entry Distributions worksheet.