Increasing Rail Demand by Improving Multimodal Information and Ticketing

Long-distance railway transport is more energy efficient and generates fewer environmental impacts than air and automobile travel. One strategy for increasing rail use is to introduce high-speed rail systems and other railway improvements; however, even with these capital improvements, rail travel may take too long for certain trips. Therefore, another strategy is to increase the use of rail for at least part of a trip (e.g., by replacing a short flight), which could be done by improving intermodal connections (e.g., flight-to-train connections at airports) or by using rail on the outbound trip and air on the return trip (or vice versa). In 2005, CityNightLine, a European night train operator, and Swiss International Air Lines developed a product that combined a night train trip with a flight. This product provided an ideal opportunity to evaluate the socio-institutional barriers to intermodal journeys by eliminating the mid-journey physical transfer present in other air–rail trips. The research surveyed users and nonusers to evaluate the socioinstitutional barriers to intermodal transport using a new product adoption structure. The research found that an effective Internet-based multimodal transport information and reservation system is needed to successfully increase rail travel. This system should provide accurate and complete information about all travel alternatives in a simple package and should enable customers to purchase a single ticket for the entire trip (including local public transport).