User insights into integrated passenger-freight transport

Integrated Passenger-Freight Transport (IPFT) offers a potential solution for reducing reliance on motorised vehicles and the associated costs of last-mile connections. To date, the scientific literature has focused primarily on defining the general framework of IPFT services and addressing operational aspects such as routing, pick-up locations and line scheduling. However, less attention has been paid to evaluating service quality from the users’ perspective. To address this research gap, a methodology is proposed to investigate the opinions of Public Transport (PT) passengers regarding potential IPFT services and identify the service characteristics that most influence bus passengers’ preferences. A Stated Preference (SP) experiment was designed to elicit the perspectives of PT users on hypothetical IPFT services. The design was based on observations from a previous international Delphi survey which identified the key requirements for the successful implementation of IPFT in urban and rural contexts. The attributes included in the SP experiment were bus service frequency, in-vehicle travel time (IVTT), fare, and passenger comfort, expressed in terms of the available in-vehicle space. Several choice sets were generated using a full factorial design. This formed the basis for administering the SP experiment to PT passengers interested in using IPFT services. The SP experiment was implemented via a Facebook survey to obtain insights from the calibration of a Random Parameter Logit (RPL) model. The RPL model determined the relative importance of each attribute in users’ preferences and their Willingness-to-Pay (WtP) for improvements to these attributes. IVTT was found to have a significant impact, with a WtP of EUR 15 for a 30 min reduction. In contrast, service frequency and comfort had a lesser influence on users’ choices. These findings are useful for supporting policymakers and practitioners in establishing service performance requirements for new IPFT systems.