Study of Willingness to Pay for Reducing Lost Time of Railway Users

Abstract

Abstract: This paper analyzed the willingness to pay (WTP) for reducing the lost time of railway users in Tokyo Metropolitan Area. A questionnaire survey was conducted to obtain the data for the analysis. Contingent valuation method (CVM) was applied to inquire their WTP in the survey. A statistical method for survival data analysis was applied to estimate the WTP function. As the results of the estimation, some significant factors which influence on the WTP were detected. Meanwhile, the expectation of the WTP was calculated using the estimated function. Then, it became clear that the expectation of the WTP was proportional to the amount of the lost time and that the expectation changed in accordance with the amount of the reducing of the lost time. Key Words: travel time reliability, willingness to pay, survival analysis 1. INTRODUCTION There are many causes to make schedule of railway service delayed. To investigate the current condition of the delay in Tokyo Metropolitan Area (TMA), a statistics by Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) can be utilized. This statistics compiles the notifications of every railway accidents, and troubles with more than 30 minutes delay. According to this statistics, we can know when and where accident happened, what a cause was, how large the influence was, and etc... Figure 1 shows the transition of the number of railway accident. It had decreased until 2003. The reason is that MLIT devised measures to reduce the number of railway accidents. For example, MLIT indicated railway companies to install emergency stop buttons in platforms, fall detection mats into railroads, and evacuation spaces under platforms. Figure 2 shows the site of railway accidents. Many railway accidents have occurred at large stations such as Tokyo, Ueno and Shinjuku. On the other hand, many railway accidents also occurred at suburban area. This indicates that if a railway accident occurs on a railway line which connects city-center and suburban area, many railway users’ movement are disturbed.