Improving regional passenger rail services

This report reviews the options available for upgrading existing passenger train services, drawing from local and international case studies to inform the conclusions. These case studies illustrate both the range of upgrades available and their effectiveness in increasing rail patronage and mode share. Travellers seek a comfortable, accessible and dependable service with low transit and waiting times which means, for the train provider, delivering reliable, frequent and fast services. These features lie at the heart of upgrades. There is no rule-of-thumb "best" upgrade option: the effectiveness, scope and cost of improvements of each of the service attributes varies between projects, locations and also the travel markets and competing mode attributes