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Introduction: Urban metro system generally has to deal with intractable heavily passenger loading during peak hours, in which demands are extreme huge in certain stations. However, overcrowding doesn't ubiquitously exist for all stations and mitigation measures have to be carried out on purpose, respectively. Because of the restrictions on operational costs and avoiding transportation resources wasting, simply increasing dispatch frequency is not rational to solve the problem. Methods: Short turning pattern has been proved to be an efficient way to solve the issue, which had been mainly used in urban ground public transport systems. This paper applied short turning pattern to urban metro system and relaxed constraints of the turning-back facility. A mathematical model is proposed to determine the short turning parameters, during which a load factor was introduced as a measurement of overcrowding condition. An empirical case from Shanghai Metro Line 2 was incorporated to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed model. Results: The results indicated that the short turning route from Beixinjing to Longyang Rd. in Shanghai Metro Line 2 could effectively relieve overcrowding within the heavy traffic demand zones. Conclusions: Findings of this study could provide valuable suggestions in metro system administration for potential improvement on the operational performance during peak hours.

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