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Changing times – A decade of empirical insight into the experience of rail passengers in Great Britain

Lyons, Glenn; Jain, Juliet; Weir, Iain

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Glenn Lyons Glenn.Lyons@uwe.ac.uk
Professor of Future Mobility



Abstract

© 2016 Elsevier Ltd In the last decade the number of rail passenger journeys in Great Britain has increased by half and car trips per person are down by a tenth. Meanwhile there has been significant growth in internet use and ownership of smartphones. Travel patterns are changing in tandem with adoption of digital age innovations. At a time when Britain is also poised to invest tens of billions of pounds in high speed rail, this paper examines how the experience of rail passengers has changed from 2004 to 2014. It draws upon questions concerning travel time use designed by its first two authors that have been included in the National Rail Passenger Survey waves conducted in Autumn 2004, 2010 and 2014, yielding over 80,000 survey responses in total. The data reveal an ongoing decline of paper-based materials accompanying travellers in the face of increasing adoption of digital alternatives. The latter can, for many, make their journey time experience better. However, the significant increase from 2004 to 2010 in the proportion of passengers considering their time use to have been very worthwhile has not continued on to 2014. This appears to be attributable (in part) to increased crowding and reduced passenger satisfaction associated with rising demand for rail travel. The paper sets out empirical insights, drawing them together in the form of a diagrammatic depiction of the interplay of factors involved in rail passenger experience. This depiction is then used to consider the implications for the future of rail travel. While mobile technologies appear to be placing more control of passenger experience in the hands of the passengers themselves, there remain important imperatives for the rail industry to support positive use of travel time.

Citation

Lyons, G., Jain, J., & Weir, I. (2016). Changing times – A decade of empirical insight into the experience of rail passengers in Great Britain. Journal of Transport Geography, 57, 94-104. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2016.10.003

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Oct 5, 2016
Online Publication Date Oct 12, 2016
Publication Date Dec 1, 2016
Deposit Date Oct 6, 2016
Publicly Available Date Mar 28, 2024
Journal Journal of Transport Geography
Print ISSN 0966-6923
Publisher Elsevier
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 57
Pages 94-104
DOI https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2016.10.003
Keywords travel time use, passenger rail, mobile technologies, ICTs, travel experience
Public URL https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/921018
Publisher URL http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2016.10.003

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