The main objective of the Project NEAR2050 is to study the future demand on the railway sector, determining which are the variables that affect most. In order to define users’ behaviour and most important variables, it has been necessary to stablish which are the customer’s opinion and variables that condition their choices when choosing a transport mode.
In order to obtain the results a qualitative study has been carried out, 2 FG and 7 in-depth interviews were held, involving, due to the pilot nature of the experience, agents and users from the railway sector from the city of Santander. The in-depth interviews were held only with experts from the railway sector. As the perception of railway users and social groups is different from that of operators, administration and workers, it was decided to hold separate FG for workers and users.
The meetings were held at the Department of Transport, Faculty of Civil Engineering and at the local offices of the railway operator. Each of the sessions was recorded both in video and audio in order to collect all the necessary information without missing any details from the contributions being made. All this information was then analysed and processed to uncover the problems, opinions and perceptions relating to mobility.
The methodology followed was slightly different for each of the activities. All the sessions were started by making a brief introduction explaining about the NEAR2050 project and its goals.
For the in-depth interviews, each of the experts was taken to a private space away from the others by an interviewer from the research group. The interview was asked in accordance with the guidelines developed for the project, where the expert being interviewed replied to and commented on all the questions covered in the guidelines. The interviews were not limited by any pre-determined time constraints; they lasted as long as was necessary to complete the set guidelines.
The following methodological steps were followed for all the focus groups:
1. Beginning with a brief introduction about the European project NEAR2050 and a description of its most important goals.
2. Followed by an introduction of the personnel who will supervise the FG and the members involved in it.
3. The participants are given an initial questionnaire containing some important aspects about user characterisation.
4. The FG begins following the previously set guidelines.
5. After the FG discussion is finished a final questionnaire is handed out to ask whether the opinion of the participant has changed in any way after the FG.
The FOCUS GROUPS took place following the detailed steps set out in the guidelines defined for the project in accordance with the user profile.
Figure 1 IP Luigi dell’Olio presents the S2R project to experts in the railway sector
Figure 2 People participating in the USERS FOCUS GROUP. Transport Department. University of Cantabria
Figure 3 Staff attending the WORKERS FOCUS GROUP. ADIF office Santander.
Main Findings:
Railway transport is generally considered to be a very comfortable way to make long journeys, however, due to their fixed routes and insufficient timetables and service frequencies the railways do not attract all the users they should.
The perception of the user of railway transport changes depending on the environment in which it is analysed. High speed and long distance services are generally highly reliable and trustworthy and furthermore, as they pass through important stops in most cases the stations have very good services. The high speeds and the low number of stops mean that the journey times are truly competitive. Nevertheless, the story is different on short distance or local services, punctuality is not particularly good and produces distrust from the user and as the train has to serve a lot of settlements close to each other there is a high number of stops which makes the journey times much longer than when using competing modes of transport. Furthermore, the high number of stops means that most of them lack the minimum acceptable services. Nevertheless, in spite of this, it is still considered to be a very comfortable mode of transport.
There has been a notable reduction in the numbers of staff members and an increase in automation over recent years. This increase in automation generates a certain level of distrust for a section of the population, mainly the elderly, because they do not understand how the machines work which could become a barrier to them accessing the railway sector. Access for people with reduced mobility has not been fully implemented and the reduction in staff has aggravated the problem because in many cases these people cannot receive the assistance they require to access the train.
The current fare system is too rigid and does not consider the differences between types of users and types of journeys, complicating making transfers with other companies or chain journeys. The current fare system has complicated fares about which the customer does not have enough information, or the information is not correctly distributed. An improvement in fare flexibility, being able to buy packages of tickets to cover a complete journey (including transfers) and combining with low cost services could attract more users.
In terms of the future, there is consensus that hypothetical alternative transport systems could become reality and represent a threat to the railway sector, more specifically to long or very long distance services and especially high speed services. These new systems would have to be economically viable and competitive and have to fulfil all the safety standards and norms that the user expects.
Meanwhile, it is generally agreed that automation will continue to be introduced, resulting in a service which is almost completely impersonal where the user will have to make their journey on their own without any form of assistance.
The complete report will be available shortly in this website.