Abstract
Public transport (PT) service disruptions are common and unexpected events which often result in major impediment to passengers’ typical travel routines. However, attitudes and behavioural responses to unexpected PT disruptions are still not fully understood in state-of-the-art research. The objective of this study is to examine how PT users adapt their travel choices and what travel information sources they utilize once they encounter sudden PT service disruptions. To this end, we conduct a passenger survey among PT users in the city of Kraków (Poland), consisting of a series of stated- and revealed-preference questions. Results show that passengers’ reported choices during past PT disruptions mostly involve adjusting the current PT travel routine, exposing a certain bias with their stated choices (which tend to overestimate the probability of modal shifts). Factors influencing travel behaviour shifts include frequency and recency of PT disruption experience, as well as propensity to arrive on-time. With regards to travel information sources, staff announcement and personal experience play an important role in recognizing the emerging disruption, but real-time information (RTI) sources are the most useful in planning the onward journey afterwards. Based on these, we highlight the implications for future RTI policy during PT service disruptions; in particular, the provision of a reliable time estimate until normal service conditions are resumed. Such RTI content could foster passengers’ tendency to use PT services in uncertain conditions, especially as their stated wait time tolerance often matches the actual duration of PT disruptions.
Highlights
Reliability of public transport (PT) services is an important factor, shaping general passenger attitudes towards PT systems, and affecting passengers’travel choices
We argue that further investigation is required to achieve a complete understanding of travel behaviour shifts and travel information usage during sudden PT service disruptions
The main objective was to investigate the impact of sudden PT disruptions upon resultant changes in passengers’ travel behaviour
Summary
Reliability (robustness) of public transport (PT) services is an important factor, shaping general passenger attitudes towards PT systems, and affecting passengers’travel choices. Travelling strategies, depending on a wide range of aspects This is especially the case for sudden (unexpected) service disruptions, which pose great journey disturbance and inconvenience. These invoke instantaneous shifts in the passengers’ current travelling strategies and lead them to undertake much less-familiar travel options. Under such circumstances, availability of reliable travel information becomes even more crucial to the decision-making process, with the increasingly ubiquitous real-time information (RTI) sources offering a greater chance to minimise the resultant disturbance. Understanding passengers’ attitudes and responses to sudden PT disruptions is of paramount importance for defining such information and management strategies that will improve travel experience in uncertain PT service conditions
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