Measuring the Benefits of Intercity Passenger Rail: A Study

Table 5-8: Passenger Travel Distance To/From Rail Station, Percent of All Trips
Travel Distance
April (To/From)
(186/119)
July (To/From)
(224/149)
10 Miles or Less 35/39 32/38
11 to 20 Miles 26/20 18/17
21 to 30 Miles 9/12 11/9
31 to 40 Miles 3/3 8/7
41 to 50 Miles 3/3 4/5
51 to 75 Miles 2/4 5/7
76 to 100 Miles 5/4 10/7
101 to 150 Miles 7/3 6/3
151 to 200 Miles 5/5 3/4
201 Miles or More 5/8 4/3
Note: Sample size shown in parenthesis.
Columns may not sum to 100 percent due to rounding.
For travel from the alighting station to the final destination, almost 40 percent of
passengers estimated that their final destination was less than 10 miles from the station. Median
distance to final destination was approximately equal in April (16 miles) and July (17 miles).
The reader should note that passenger response to this question was markedly lower than the
other items on the survey form.
Passenger Trip Purpose
Table 5-9 shows passengers’ reported trip purpose. Passengers on the Heartland Flyer
reported primarily pleasure trips, with most passengers traveling to visit family or friends or for
leisure/recreation purposes. Collectively, these trips accounted for more than three-fourths of all
Heartland Flyer passenger trip purposes. As a percentage of all passengers, trips to visit family
or friends composed a higher percentage in July while trips for leisure/recreation were a higher
proportion in April. One possible cause for this discrepancy is that families with school-age
children may be most likely to visit family or friends in the summer, when more time is available
for discretionary activities. As expected, vacation comprised a relatively high percentage of trips
on the Heartland Flyer in July, with about 15 percent of passengers reporting this purpose. The
conceptual difference between “leisure/recreation” and “vacation” is the duration of the activity,
with the latter being the longer of the two. While this distinction was not made on the survey
form, it appears that the responses generally aligned with this definition.
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