It is difficult for a single model to simultaneously capture the nonlinear, correlation, and periodicity of data series in the passenger flow prediction of urban rail transit (URT). To better predict the short-term passenger flow of URT, based on the long short-term memory network (LSTM) model, a deep learning model prediction method combining the time convolution network (TCN) and the long short-term memory network (LSTM) based on machine learning is proposed. The model couples the external factors such as date attributes, weather conditions, and air quality, to improve the overall prediction performance and solve the difficulty of accurate prediction due to the large fluctuation and randomness of short-term passenger flow in rail transit. Using the swiping data and related weather information of some stations of Chongqing Rail Transit Line 3, the TCN-LSTM model is verified by an example, and the prediction results of the single LSTM model are given for comparison. The results show that the TCN-LSTM model can better predict the passenger flow characteristics of different stations at different times. Compared with the single LSTM model, the TCN-LSTM model has better prediction accuracy and data generalization ability.

Traditional station passenger flow prediction can no longer meet the application needs of urban rail transit vehicle scheduling. Station passenger flow can only predict station distribution, and the passenger flow distribution in general sections is unknown. Accurate short-term travel origin and destination (OD) passenger flow prediction is the main basis for formulating urban rail transit operation organization plans. To simultaneously consider the spatiotemporal characteristics of passenger flow distribution and achieve high precision estimation of origin and destination (OD) passenger flow quickly, a predictive model based on a temporal convolutional network and a long short-term memory network (TCN–LSTM) combined with an attention mechanism was established to process passenger flow data in urban rail transit. Firstly, according to the passenger flow data of the urban rail transit section, the existing data characteristics were summarized, and the impact of external factors on section passenger flow was studied. Then, a temporal convolutional network and long short-term memory (TCN–LSTM) deep learning model based on an attention mechanism was constructed to predict interval passenger flow. The model combines some external factors such as time, date attributes, weather conditions, and air quality that affect passenger flow in the interval to improve the shortcomings of the original model in predicting origin and destination (OD) passenger flow. Taking Chongqing Rail Transit as an example, the model was validated, and the results showed that the deep learning model had significantly better prediction results than other baseline models. The applicability analysis in scenarios such as high/medium/low passenger flow could achieve stable prediction results.