Measuring the Benefits of Intercity Passenger Rail: A Study

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a particular corridor. For example, the alternative of “Amtrak Long-Distance Train” would not be an alternative for travel in certain state-supported corridors (such as the Heartland Flyer corridor), and therefore would not be provided as a choice on a survey in that corridor. Given the importance of the alternative travel mode question to this research study, additional details about this question were reviewed. Of the 12 survey instruments that included the alternative travel mode question, 10 provided the respondent with a set of alternative travel options, and included “would not make trip” as a choice. One survey instrument “nested” the question by first asking the respondent if he or she would make the trip in the absence of the rail service, then report the likely alternative mode if the response to the initial question was “yes.” Respondents who selected “no” for the question were instructed to skip to the next question. The other survey instrument provided a list of choices and asked the respondent to rate the likelihood of choosing each alternative in the absence of the train service, utilizing a four-point scale. The wording of the alternative travel mode question was also considered in this review. Since this is a stated preference-style question, passengers must place themselves in a hypothetical reality (one without rail service) then consider their behavior in that context. Thus, the wording of this question is critical in order to develop the hypothetical context in the mind of the respondent and elicit the most accurate response possible. The key consideration for the development of this context is the characterization of the current rail service (under the hypothetical reality) in the question wording. Out of the 12 survey instruments reviewed, phrases used to describe the hypothetical scenario were classified as follows: • Rail Service “Not Available” (6) • Rail Service “Did Not Exist” (4) • Rail Service “Did Not Operate” (1) • “No Train Service at All” (1) The distinction made between these phrases is subtle, yet critical. Characterizing the rail service as “not available” or “did not operate” may create a scenario in the mind of the respondent where the train was canceled for that day or there was a different departure time. Arguably, passenger behavior is different in that situation than the scenario where there is no rail service at all along a particular intercity corridor. Of these four choices, the phrase “Did Not Exist” seemingly 40
provides the most clarity for the situation if the purpose of the survey is to identify how the rail service impacts large-scale intercity mobility. Discussion The on-board passenger survey is an efficient method for data collection involving transit properties. The primary advantage of the on-board survey is that it provides access to a target population that might not be otherwise easy to identify with other data collection methods. For intercity passenger rail, the on-board survey is particularly effective. Passenger trips on lowdensity intercity passenger rail routes may be rather infrequent and consist of only a small percentage of overall urban area residents; as such, data collection via a household travel diary survey would be substantially less effective than an on-board passenger survey. The on-board survey also allows for direct sampling, thus providing the ability to draw conclusions about the entire population of passengers if the analyst utilizes a robust sampling design. Most of the literature on the design of on-board passenger surveys focuses on the urban bus or rail transit application. However, many of the lessons learned in those applications apply to the design of on-board surveys for intercity passenger rail. Lessons for both survey design and data collection procedures were discussed. An analysis of the content of 18 survey instruments used in past on-board surveys of state-supported intercity passenger rail routes was also conducted. This analysis revealed patterns and trends in the design of survey instruments used in this application. Most survey items were “revealed preference” questions. However, one “stated preference” question regarding the passengers preferred alternative travel arrangement if the rail service did not exist appeared on two-thirds of the survey instruments reviewed. Detailed analysis of the question wording and choice set found that questions presented the hypothetical scenario (where the rail service did not exist) in different ways while the choice set was generally consistent with available modes of travel in the intercity corridor. To identify passengers that would forgo their trips in the absence of the rail service, “Would Not Make Trip” or similar was included as a choice in this question, although some surveys took a different approach. 41
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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
Page 19 and 20: participate in the study. Throughou
Page 21 and 22: such as medical appointments or fun
Page 23 and 24: Heartland Flyer annually. Induced t
Page 25 and 26: Heartland Flyer identified in this
Page 27: DISCLAIMER The contents of this rep
Page 31 and 32: CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION In its Dece
Page 33 and 34: to Fort Worth intercity corridor wa
Page 35: • An overview of intercity passen
Page 38 and 39: passenger deficit for the year 1969
Page 40 and 41: In April 2009, the Federal Railroad
Page 42 and 43: conditions across the United States
Page 44 and 45: Table 2-2: State-Supported Routes i
Page 46 and 47: Oklahoma and Texas support service
Page 48 and 49: conducted by the Southeastern Wisco
Page 50 and 51: Discussion of State-Supported Rail
Page 52 and 53: • The 1993 Illinois Passenger Rai
Page 54 and 55: INTERCITY PASSENGER RAIL PLANNING T
Page 56 and 57: Data Needs for Intercity Passenger
Page 58 and 59: supported routes. The following par
Page 60 and 61: • Third, the total non-business r
Page 62 and 63: demand model varies, Horowitz and F
Page 64 and 65: Survey Design Literature Deploying
Page 66 and 67: Table 2-4: Elements Included in On-
Page 68 and 69: question. This pattern is consisten
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 and 120: eporting how far passengers were fr
Page 121 and 122:
CHAPTER 5: DATA ANALYSIS This chapt
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survey item by the total number of
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Comparing the total column in Table
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Tables 5-5 and 5-6 display another
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Heartland Flyer Market Area Researc
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Table 5-9: Passenger Trip Purpose,
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PASSENGER CHARACTERISTICS Passenger
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is entirely possible that a passeng
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In both April and July, the two mos
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Table 5-19: Passenger State of Resi
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Figure 5-2: Residential Zip Codes o
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Gender Table 5-22 reports passenger
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Household Income Table 5-26 reports
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In FFY 2009, the Heartland Flyer ra
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Table 5-28: Passenger Alternatives
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Urban and Rural Mobility Another co
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passenger was approximately $120 in
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if the service did not exist (appro
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This study measured the mobility im
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questions on the passenger’s boar
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made is related to the similarity b
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valuable insight on the design of f
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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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Measuring the Benefits of Intercity Passenger Rail: A Study

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