ENHANCING EUROPEAN RAIL PERFORMANCE THROUGH MARKET FOCUS

This paper is based on a recent major market research exercise across four European countries into passenger attitudes towards the quality and performance of inter-city rail operations. It was part of the European Union Prorata Project, whose principal goal is to study and propose measures to make railways more competitive in long-distance and international traffic. The market research was a mixture of research into existing travel demand data and mode-choice criteria studies and new qualitative focus group surveys. The focus groups were set up to study the opinions and attitudes of long-distance travellers about alternative travel modes, especially rail. More specific objectives included: (1) identification of mode choice criteria; (2) assessing current perceptions of rail's performance in relation to other modes; (3) establishing current expectations of long-distance rail trips; and (4) establishing future expectations of rail. The 14 focus groups were held in the UK, the Netherlands, Italy, and Greece; they discussed the issues facing long-distance rail, and made remarkably similar comments. Negative aspects of rail travel were mentioned much more often, even by frequent rail users, but rail was still considered very popular. The dominant aspiration for future railways was for a reliable basic service.

• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/09639578
• Corporate Authors:

  MACK-BROOKS PUBLISHING LTD

  FORUM PLACE
  HATFIELD, HERTFORDSHIRE  United Kingdom  AL10 0RN
• Authors:
  • Brown, M
  • PEAKALL, A
  • TORELLI, F
  • EMMANOULOPOULOS, G
  • VAN GINKEL, J
• Publication Date: 1999

Language

• English

Media Info

• Features: References;
• Pagination: p. 10,12-3,15,17
• Serial:
  • Rail Bulletin
  • Volume: 11
  • Issue Number: 2
  • Publisher: MACK-BROOKS PUBLISHING LTD
  • ISSN: 0963-9578

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Attitudes; Consumer preferences; Demand; Intercity transportation; Interviewing; Modal split; Mode choice; Public transit; Quality control; Railroad transportation; Transportation operations; Travel demand
• Uncontrolled Terms: Quality
• Geographic Terms: Greece; Italy; Netherlands; United Kingdom
• ITRD Terms: 2267: Attitude (psychol); 287: Attractiveness (transp); 8525: Conference; 285: Demand (econ); 8040: Greece; 388: Inter urban; 9147: Interview; 8051: Italy; 698: Journey; 675: Modal split; 8078: Netherlands; 1144: Operations (transp network); 173: Policy; 142: Public participation; 744: Public transport; 9063: Quality; 1173: Rail bound transport; 8119: United Kingdom
• Subject Areas: Public Transportation; Railroads; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00768659
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: Transport Research Laboratory
• Files: ITRD
• Created Date: Sep 10 1999 12:00AM