Measuring the Benefits of Intercity Passenger Rail: A Study

such as medical appointments or funerals, comprised approximately 5 percent of the total travel
in both seasons. Business travel and personal business appeared to be more frequent on
weekdays rather than weekends, another reasonable finding.
Survey Findings: Passenger Characteristics
Passenger characteristics examined in this study revealed a wealth of information about
who is using the Heartland Flyer service. A majority of passengers were infrequent riders of the
service, with 86 percent of those surveyed in April and 92 percent of those surveyed in July
having made between one and four trips in the last year. The median trip frequency was
approximately two one-way trips or the equivalent of a single round-trip in the last 12 months.
Approximately half of the passengers surveyed reported making a round-trip on the Heartland
Flyer on the day of the survey, but this trend was not reflected in passenger responses for the
number of nights away from home on the trip. This suggests that the Heartland Flyer trip was
part of a larger trip tour such as a weekend getaway or vacation. In both April and July, the two
most frequently cited reasons for choosing the Heartland Flyer were passenger comfort and cost,
with more than a third of passengers reporting these reasons. Approximately three-quarters of
Heartland Flyer passengers reported an Oklahoma zip code for their residence, while 20 percent
of passengers reported a Texas residence. Not surprisingly, a majority of Heartland Flyer
passengers reported residences near Oklahoma City or Norman. The distribution of passenger
zip codes around the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex was fairly uniform across the region. Also, a
relatively high number of passengers reported residential zip codes around the Tulsa region.
Most travel parties consisted of solo travelers or couples, and a majority of Heartland
Flyer passengers were traveling with no children under the age of 18 in the travel party. In July,
there were a higher percentage of one- and two-child parties; this was not surprising, as it was
during the summer when school was not in session. Females comprised at least 60 percent of the
total ridership during both study periods. The distribution of passenger ages was fairly uniform
with a slight skew toward passengers in older age groups, with a median passenger age of 51 in
April and 48 in July. Approximately half of Heartland Flyer passengers were employed on a
full-time basis, while approximately one-quarter of the passengers were retired. Nearly all of the
Heartland Flyer passengers surveyed lived in a household with at least one vehicle, with the
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