Measuring the Benefits of Intercity Passenger Rail: A Study

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error cleaning used in this study appeared to increase the total per-item response rate by about two percentage points during both study periods. Second, the per-item response rate for most survey items (14 out of 23 in total) could not be improved from their original rates. The review and cleaning discussed in prior sections only addressed a few items on the survey, yet these items were important. Table 4-6: Comparison of Per-Item Percent Response Rate, Raw and Final Data Sets Survey Item April (435 Surveys) Raw Final July (588 Surveys) Raw Final Boarding Station 96 100 94 100 Access Travel Mode 95 99 96 99 Access Time 94 94 94 94 Access Miles 43 43 38 38 Alighting Station 97 100 98 100 Egress Travel Mode 94 98 94 99 Egress Time 89 89 89 89 Egress Miles 27 27 25 25 Trip Purpose 83 88 85 89 Alternative Travel Mode 93 95 94 95 Round-Trip Today 98 98 98 98 Trip Frequency 94 97 93 97 Reasons for Choosing Rail 72 91 65 93 Nights Away from Home 93 93 94 94 Spending on Trip 98 98 92 92 Residential Zip Code 97 97 96 96 Gender 98 98 97 97 Age Group 98 98 97 97 Party Size-Adults 89 89 86 86 Party Size-Children 94 94 94 94 Employment Status 95 97 89 92 Household Vehicles 98 98 95 95 Household Income 89 89 85 85 All Survey Items 88 90 87 89 The following items had a response rate of less than 90 percent after the quality control: • Access/Egress Miles: These items had the lowest response of all the items on the survey, with response rates for access miles around 40 percent and egress miles less than 30 percent. This was not a major issue as the survey did not specifically request the number of miles be reported; rather, it was given as an alternative to travel time for 88
eporting how far passengers were from the train. If the access and egress miles items are not considered, the total per-item response was above 90 percent for both study periods. • Egress Time: Non-response for this item was likely due to the respondent not having a clear idea of an answer, either because they did not know (i.e., going to visit a friend and do not know the area well enough to estimate) or there were no set destinations (i.e., just going to walk around downtown Fort Worth). • Trip Purpose: Non-response for this item was not an issue so much as there were many surveys returned with multiple responses that researchers could not interpret into a single response. As a result, less than 90 percent of the surveys had a valid response. • Household Income: Non-response on this item was expected as some respondents are not comfortable telling researchers (or anyone else) about their household income. The response rate for this item in this survey was actually higher than researchers expected. DISCUSSION AND LESSONS LEARNED The data collection procedures used in this study, from the design of the survey through the data collection and reduction processes, revealed some valuable lessons learned that can be applied by researchers or analysts when planning future on-board surveys of intercity passenger rail routes. In the survey design process, researchers developed as many questions as possible as “closed” questions, or questions with a defined set of answers from which to choose. This was important because having closed questions reduced respondent burden (which increased response) and also aided the quality control process by eliminating the need to interpret the meaning of responses provided to “open” questions. Another design element that provided a great deal of benefits in all subsequent study phases was the inclusion of an index number on each survey form before it was distributed to passengers. During the data collection, the index number was relied upon to identify survey forms that had been distributed but not returned to the researchers. During the quality control phase, researchers used the index number to identify missing information based on the information provided in adjacent surveys. 89
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1. Report No. SWUTC/10/169116-1 2.
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ABSTRACT In recent years, the polic
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LIST OF FIGURES Page Figure 3-1: He
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY INTRODUCTION In i
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ail service along intercity corrido
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planning faces a variety of challen
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of travel (in the absence of rail s
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participate in the study. Throughou
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such as medical appointments or fun
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Heartland Flyer annually. Induced t
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Heartland Flyer identified in this
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DISCLAIMER The contents of this rep
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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION In its Dece
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to Fort Worth intercity corridor wa
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• An overview of intercity passen
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passenger deficit for the year 1969
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In April 2009, the Federal Railroad
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conditions across the United States
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Table 2-2: State-Supported Routes i
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Oklahoma and Texas support service
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conducted by the Southeastern Wisco
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Discussion of State-Supported Rail
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• The 1993 Illinois Passenger Rai
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INTERCITY PASSENGER RAIL PLANNING T
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Data Needs for Intercity Passenger
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supported routes. The following par
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• Third, the total non-business r
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demand model varies, Horowitz and F
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Survey Design Literature Deploying
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Table 2-4: Elements Included in On-
Page 68 and 69: question. This pattern is consisten
Page 70 and 71: a particular corridor. For example,
Page 73 and 74: CHAPTER 3: DESCRIPTION OF HEARTLAND
Page 75 and 76: • After passing through Davis, th
Page 77 and 78: minutes early. A later section of t
Page 79 and 80: corridor. Table 3-1 shows a snapsho
Page 81 and 82: enefits resulting from the route’
Page 83 and 84: state of Oklahoma (71). This action
Page 85 and 86: served by the route are Pauls Valle
Page 87 and 88: Figure 3-4: Typical P42DC Locomotiv
Page 89 and 90: during non-peak times when the usua
Page 91 and 92: effect during this research study w
Page 93 and 94: HEARTLAND FLYER SERVICE DATA The fo
Page 95 and 96: Examining the 10-year monthly avera
Page 97 and 98: surprisingly, is Oklahoma City-Fort
Page 99 and 100: Figure 3-9: Heartland Flyer On-Time
Page 101 and 102: CHAPTER 4: DATA COLLECTION The main
Page 103 and 104: amenities that could increase rail
Page 105 and 106: pool be increased to 3,000. The IRB
Page 107 and 108: Summary of Data Collection Tables 4
Page 109 and 110: Ineligible Passengers Several group
Page 111 and 112: QUALITY CONTROL After completing th
Page 113 and 114: For the access mode to station ques
Page 115 and 116: One question on the survey asked th
Page 117: trip). However, researchers determi
Page 121 and 122: CHAPTER 5: DATA ANALYSIS This chapt
Page 123 and 124: survey item by the total number of
Page 125 and 126: Comparing the total column in Table
Page 127 and 128: Tables 5-5 and 5-6 display another
Page 129 and 130: Heartland Flyer Market Area Researc
Page 131 and 132: Table 5-9: Passenger Trip Purpose,
Page 133 and 134: PASSENGER CHARACTERISTICS Passenger
Page 135 and 136: is entirely possible that a passeng
Page 137 and 138: In both April and July, the two mos
Page 139 and 140: Table 5-19: Passenger State of Resi
Page 141 and 142: Figure 5-2: Residential Zip Codes o
Page 143 and 144: Gender Table 5-22 reports passenger
Page 145 and 146: Household Income Table 5-26 reports
Page 147 and 148: In FFY 2009, the Heartland Flyer ra
Page 149 and 150: Table 5-28: Passenger Alternatives
Page 151 and 152: Urban and Rural Mobility Another co
Page 153 and 154: passenger was approximately $120 in
Page 155 and 156: if the service did not exist (appro
Page 157: This study measured the mobility im
Page 160 and 161: questions on the passenger’s boar
Page 162 and 163: made is related to the similarity b
Page 164 and 165: valuable insight on the design of f
Page 167 and 168: REFERENCES 1. National Surface Tran
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35. Corey, Canapary & Galanis Resea
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74. Able Consulting. Tier 1 Environ
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Figure A-3: Purcell Amtrak Station
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Figure A-7: Fort Worth Amtrak Stati
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