Night-Time Train Travel

Abstract

Limiting climate change forces us to switch to a more sustainable mobility. Travelling by train is more sustainable. Night trains might be a solution, they over several advantages such as a higher comfort level and can travel long-distances during the night. However, there currently is no knowledge about the Willingness to Use night trains. This study is the first into this Willingness to Use night trains, as an alternative for flying, for long-distance European travel. To do so, this paper makes use of two Stated-Preference experiments. A comfort rating experiment, in which the comfort rating is the dependent variable. In this experiment, it is explored to which extent night train characteristics influence the ’perceived comfort’ rating. In the mode choice experiment, it is in turn investigated how this comfort rating is traded-off against more traditional mode choice attributes such as trip time and trip costs. The study presents the results of linear regression and a Panel Mixed Logit model, estimated on 804 collected responses in the Netherlands. The results of both models are combined to derive Willingness-to-Pay values for an improvement in one of the comfort attributes, given an initial comfort level. Furthermore, several segments were identified using a latent class choice model. At last, the Willingness to Use the night train is explored for several scenarios. It is shown that when the night train is introduced as-is, it is predicted to have a market share of about 60%. Positioning the night train as a low-cost competitor results in a significant drop in market share.