The wider value of rural rail provision

In the context of recent plans for public sector expenditure, the value for money provided by rural public transport is an important issue in Britain and elsewhere, and one aspect of this is the option and non-use value placed on public transport by residents. Whilst there are a small number of studies which have estimated option and non-use values, they rest largely on contingent valuation methods which are subject to dangers of bias, and concentrate on commuter services into cities rather than truly rural services. This paper seeks to overcome these problems by conducting a Stated Preference (SP) experiment in rural communities, which values the provision of rail services and compares this against Post Office provision. The authors believe that using this approach, and allowing respondents to compare willingness to pay for rail services with that for another important rural service subject to threatened cuts, should produce more reliable results; moreover they achieve this using self completion questionnaires rather than much more expensive interviews. Results show much lower values for rail than previous studies, though this is to be expected in truly rural areas where the likelihood of commuting by rail is much lower. Other non-use values are greater than option values in this context.

• Record URL:
  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tranpol.2013.04.007
• Record URL:
  http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0967070X13000589
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/oclc/29485010
• Supplemental Notes:
  • Abstract reprinted with permission from Elsevier.
• Authors:
  • Johnson, Daniel
  • Jackson, James
  • Nash, Chris
• Publication Date: 2013-9

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Print
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: pp 126-135
• Serial:
  • Transport Policy
  • Volume: 29
  • Issue Number: 0
  • Publisher: Elsevier
  • ISSN: 0967-070X
  • Serial URL: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/issn/096707X

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Commuter service; Nonuser benefits; Rail transit; Rural transit; Stated preferences; Valuation
• Geographic Terms: United Kingdom
• Subject Areas: Planning and Forecasting; Public Transportation; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01499495
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Oct 18 2013 4:37PM