Eur. Phys. J. B 71, 125-137 (2009)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2009-00291-3

Resilience of public transport networks against attacks

¹ Statistical Physics Group, P2M Dpt, Institut Jean Lamour, Nancy Université, BP 70239, 54506 Vandœuvre les Nancy, France
² Institute for Condensed Matter Physics, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, 79011 Lviv, Ukraine
³ Applied Mathematics Research Centre, Coventry University, Coventry, CV1 5FB, UK
⁴ Physikalisches Institut, Universität Freiburg, 79104 Freiburg, Germany
⁵ Institut für Theoretische Physik, Johannes Kepler Universität Linz, 4040, Linz, Austria

Corresponding author: ^a hol@icmp.lviv.ua

Received: 11 May 2009
Revised: 16 July 2009
Published online: 18 August 2009

Abstract

The behavior of complex networks under failure or attack depends strongly on the specific scenario. Of special interest are scale-free networks, which are usually seen as robust under random failure but appear to be especially vulnerable to targeted attacks. In recent studies of public transport networks of fourteen major cities of the world it was shown that these systems when represented by appropriate graphs may exhibit scale-free behavior [Physica A 380, 585 (2007); Eur. Phys. J. B 68, 261 (2009)]. Our present analysis focuses on the effects that defunct or removed nodes have on the properties of public transport networks. Simulating different directed attack strategies, we derive vulnerability criteria that result in minimal strategies with high impact on these systems.