Project Description
Air travel is one of the most emission-intensive industries. Because of this, the European Union actively tries to stimulate the transition from air to rail travel, as trains were more eco-friendly. Besides efforts to improve the international railway infrastructure, liberalize the railway market and introduce an international train ticket system, the EU also focuses on increasing the price to fly by reversing the tax-free status of the aviation industry. However, train tickets were also increasingly more expensive. What happens if the EU decreases train ticket taxes or even starts subsidizing them? The main research question focused on the effect of train ticket prices on holiday travel mode choice. Participants were asked to state their preferences for train or plane as holiday travel modes in multiple scenarios. These were based on real air and rail connections between Amsterdam and 8 of Europe’s most popular city destinations. The travel time and travel costs of each travel mode in these scenarios were presented to the participants. The travel costs, or ticket prices, of the train option were manipulated. Scenarios included 1 of the 5 levels, ranging from -50% to 50% of the current ticket price. The findings showed a significant effect of the train ticket price on holiday travel mode choice. The differences between destinations were insignificant, which means that the direction of the effect was the same for all destinations. However, the size of the effect did differ between destinations. Generally, the train ticket price effect was larger for longer trips and smaller for shorter trips. A secondary research question focused on the moderating effect of the demographics of participants. The findings showed that generally male, higher educated, younger (<34 years) and older (>55 years) participants and participants with low and medium individual income were more likely to travel by train.
Author: M. Bijvoets (2023)
