The Passenger Preferences for Flexible Tickets and Key Attributes for Ticket Design of High-speed Railway: A Case Study from China

Abstract

The high-speed railway (HSR) has become an important means of sustainable transportation, but most HSR lines are facing losses, especially China. Properly selling HSR flexible tickets has been verified to be an effective means to improve revenue. However, passengers’ choice behavior for flexible tickets directly determines whether revenue increases. There is no research identifying the factors influencing HSR flexible ticket choice to help operators appeal potential buyers and design popular flexible tickets. To fill this gap, this research conducted the stated preference survey and constructed the Integrated Choice and Latent Variables model to analyze the key factors that affect passengers’ purchase behavior toward HSR flexible tickets, including individual attributes, travel characteristics, scheme attributes, and potential factors. The results show that HSR flexible tickets are more attractive to passengers with higher education, longer travel distances, traveling alone, and traveling at their own expense, and those with lower perceived risk, higher environmental awareness, and higher technological interests. In addition, through data analysis, it is found that the fare, the earliest and latest departure time interval among the corresponding alternative trains, and the period in which the departure time interval is located will affect passengers’ willingness to purchase a flexible ticket as well as key elements in the design of the HSR flexible ticket. The study’s results can provide references for the design of HSR flexible tickets, suggestions for enhancing the passengers’ willingness to purchase flexible tickets, and choice behavior parameters for flexible ticket revenue management models.

Keywords

High-speed railway / Flexible product / Travel choice behavior / ICLV model

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Funding

National Natural Science Foundation of China(72061028)

Natural Science Foundation of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region(2022MS07020)

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

The Author(s)