Air quality in Enclosed Railway Stations: quantifying the impact of diesel trains through deployment of multi-site measurement and random forest modelling

Concentrations of the air pollutants (NO2 and particulate matter) were measured for several months and at multiple locations inside and outside two enclosed railway stations in the United Kingdom – Edinburgh Waverly (EDB) and London King’s Cross (KGX) – which, respectively, had at the time 59% and 18% of their train services powered by diesel engines. Average concentrations of NO2 were above the 40 µg m-3 annual limit value outside the stations and were further elevated inside, especially at EDB. Concentrations of PM2.5 inside the stations were 30-40% higher at EDB than outside and up to 20% higher at KGX. Concentrations of both NO2 and PM2.5 were highest closer to the platforms, especially those with a higher frequency of diesel services. A random-forest regression model was used to quantify the impact of numbers of different types of diesel trains on measured concentrations allowing prediction of the impact of individual diesel-powered rolling stock.