The benefits and demand impacts of regular train timetables

Some railway administrations, such those in the Netherlands and Switzerland, have adopted regular interval train timetables. These railway authorities regard the benefits of regularity to be self evident and have taken policy decisions without any empirical evidence in support. Whilst we do not dispute that there are benefits of regularity, there will be instances where its implementation incurs additional train operating costs and thus it is essential that the impacts on demand, for financial appraisal, or on the willingness to pay, for economic appraisal, are firmly established. The aims of the research were to test the hypothesis that regular timetables are valued by travellers, to establish how much they are valued and variations across key characteristics of travellers and their journeys, and to determine the extent to which these benefits translate into demand increases. Stated preference (SP) exercises have been conducted where individuals considered the features of the timetable in the context of their likely future travel on a specific route. Surveys of train travellers were conducted in late 2002 and over 2000 questionnaires have been completed. The SP exercises contained journey time, fare and different types of train departures. Various levels of frequency were offered. The econometric analysis is based on variations in rail demand across different rail routes. A large demand matrix of over 30,000 observations is being analysed. The results will be used to determine the revenue and broader benefits of a revised timetable structure to be produced for key routes in Great Britain which, as far as is possible, is built around the features of regular interval, clockfaced and memorable departure times. For the covering abstract see ITRD E126595.