Unravelling night train travel behaviour

Abstract

Night trains benefit society in multiple ways. They are environmentally friendly, improve the accessibility of regions and are space-effective. Understanding traveller's preferences enables night train operators to improve night train services and harness societal benefits better. This study conducted a stated preference survey with 1031 respondents from the Netherlands to dive deeper into the importance of operational factors like booking convenience, travel costs, long travel times of up to 18 hours and accommodations. Additionally, factors that make up a convenient booking scenario were revealed. Lastly, a latent class choice model (LCCM) was applied to derive insights into heterogeneity and to determine to which extent personal factors influence class membership. Results reveal that for a convenient booking scenario, being able to book one ticket and comparing travel options are most important. However, booking convenience only plays a minor role in determining night train mode choice. Travel costs and accommodation are significantly more important. Several classes have been revealed: Environmentally conscious comfort lovers make up 13% of the respondents, experienced night train travellers 29\%, cost-sensitive travellers 37% and flight lovers 20%. Applying a scenario analysis, night train market shares vary from 20% to 71%, with significant heterogeneity among respondents. For practitioners, this implies focusing mainly on prices and accommodation while taking the significantly different preferences of the population into consideration.