Measuring the Benefits of Intercity Passenger Rail: A Study

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During the data collection process, support provided by the Amtrak on-board staff was invaluable to the researchers. From boarding the train before the rest of the passengers to providing information about passenger location in the train to providing the origin-destination matrix to the researchers, the support provided by the Heartland Flyer on-board staff made the data collection process go much smoother. The use of an opaque box in the café car for passengers to deposit completed surveys was recommended by project stakeholders but only used by about 3 percent of the total respondents. The response rate for survey items was excellent—near 90 percent during both April and July. The data cleaning process described identified several opportunities to reduce the error in the data set, improving the per-item response rate by two percentage points. 90
CHAPTER 5: DATA ANALYSIS This chapter reports the key findings of the analysis of data obtained from the on-board survey of Heartland Flyer passengers. Provided is a brief discussion of the statistical methods used by researchers in this analysis. The analysis is divided into four components. The first two components, travel characteristics and passenger characteristics, summarize basic findings of the survey questions. The second two components, mobility impacts and economic impacts, delve further into the data set to measure the impacts of the Heartland Flyer service through a more detailed examination of the interrelationships between survey items. STATISICAL CONSIDERATIONS In the design of an on-board survey for intercity passenger rail, an important consideration is the development of a formal sampling plan to select passengers for participation in the study. There are three main reasons to employ a formal sampling plan in a study of this nature. First, a formal sampling design may allow the analyst to take fewer observations (i.e., passenger surveys) than originally expected, which reduces study cost. Second, equations for computing the variance of an estimator from a particular sampling plan can be utilized to report the precision of any estimates developed from the sample. Finally, the sample variances can be used to draw inferences about the larger population of rail passengers. Several common sampling procedures are available when planning a data collection project such as an on-board survey of intercity rail passengers. These procedures include simple random sampling, stratified random sampling, and cluster sampling (53). These procedures are used to select a sampling unit from the target population for participation. In the case of this study, the target population was all Heartland Flyer passengers and the sampling unit was an individual passenger. Under simple random sampling, each sampling unit has an equal chance of being included in the sampled population (group of sampling units included in study). A random number generator, for example, might be used to select a sample of a desired size from the population. Since a sampling frame (i.e., a list of passengers) is not available or known before the start of the data collection, equal probabilities of each passenger being selected for participation in the study cannot be guaranteed, thus limiting the use of a simple random 91
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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-
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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 and 118: trip). However, researchers determi
Page 119: eporting how far passengers were fr
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
Page 169 and 170: 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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