Appraising the Benefits of Regular Train Timetables

Regular train timetables, in which services depart at the same minutes past every hour throughout the day, preferably at even intervals, are assumed to provide benefits for passengers. They are a feature of some European railways, notably in the Netherlands, Switzerland and Germany, but little research has been conducted into how passengers value these more desirable departure patterns and their impacts on demand. This study has conducted an SP exercise to estimate the value attached to various aspects of regular timetables, has used these results to enhance a conventional rail demand model estimated to ticket sales data and has applied the demand model to evaluate a regular timetable that has been produced for the East Coast route in Britain. Such a timetable is forecast to deliver considerable benefits that are achievable without significant increases in the resources involved in supplying train services.