EVALUATION OF PASSENGER TRAIN CONCEPTS – Practical Methods for Measuring Travellers ’ preferences in Relation to Costs

Abstract: This paper presents practical methods in these areas; costs, valuation methods and handling of package effects and finally how to trade off passengers ’ valuations to costs. The methods are used as a toolbox for identifying the measures that would increase the value for rail passengers and the society and increasing the profitability for rail operators. ”Practical methods ” means that the procedures for data collection and analysis should be efficient in terms of research time and cost and effective in terms of high quality results. Both costs and valuations are described as per cent change. These changes can be traded off. Beneficial measures are those where the difference between passengers ’ marginal valuation and operators ’ marginal cost is positive. Examples of such measures are higher train speeds and many on-board comfort measures