Measuring the Benefits of Intercity Passenger Rail: A Study

questions also reduce respondent burden, which in turn improves the quantity and the quality of
the survey response. Using “closed” questions with specified answers also simplifies the
analysis of survey data by greatly reducing the need to interpret the meaning and intent of written
survey responses. Survey items that were considered essential for inclusion in the survey
instrument for this study included the following:
• Introductory narrative explaining the purpose of the survey and project participants;
• Boarding and alighting information: station, travel mode, time/distance;
• Trip information: trip purpose, trip frequency, alternative travel mode;
• Passenger demographics; and
• Passenger comments area.
The boarding and alighting station and travel mode questions were designed as closed questions
while the time and distance items were left open to allow the respondent to write in the
appropriate answer. The purpose of including time and distance was to identify the market area
for the service; that is to say, from how far away passengers travel to access the rail service. Both
time and distance as a measure of market area were provided as options for passenger response
as recommended in survey design literature (51). Passenger demographic questions on the
survey included passenger residential zip code, gender, age, employment status, travel party size
(adults and children), household vehicles, and household income. All demographics questions
except for residential zip code and travel party size were closed questions. The residential zip
code question provided five boxes for the passenger to write in each number of the five-digit zip
code separately. At the bottom of the second page of the survey, a small space was provided for
the passenger to write comments about the Heartland Flyer service. Researcher contact
information was also provided in the event that a respondent had any questions or wished to
submit the survey form at a later time. To aid in the accounting of survey forms during the data
collection process and throughout the analysis, an index number was stamped on the upper righthand
corner of both sides of the survey form.
After adding all the above “essential” items to the draft survey instrument, some
additional space remained in the two-page layout. Researchers considered several alternative
questions pertinent to measuring the impacts of the rail service. Questions on service changes or
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