The value of travel and waiting time for ferry passengers in fjord crossings - The case of the Trondheimfjord, Norway

Transport infrastructures projects entail a change in the users perception, directly affecting to how they value their time, hence the socio-economic profitability of the projects. The value of time provides a large part of the benefits due to the travel time savings. These benefits come from the consumer surplus, so it is necessary to know the value of time before the implementation of the projects. The Norwegian topography causes that many road trips need the ferries services to cross the fjords, which implies waiting times and longer travel times. Therefore, the great potential of improvement makes that many ferry replacement projects are being developed in the current Norwegian road network. These projects considerably modify the transportation network in its surroundings, causing large travel time savings and an increase of the reliability and the flexibility, as these connections are open 24/7. They are and will be one of the highest costs in the road investments in Norway, so studying the value of time in detail could provide the decision makers with valuable information. The value of travel and waiting time are already calculated for other transportation projects, but there are few studies specifically for the fjord crossings. This study tries to contribute to the literature in this field. This article studies and quantifies the value of travel and waiting time for the different ways of crossing a fjord in Norway, by car and ferry, bus and ferry or speed boat. The aim is obtaining the users perception in terms of travel time and cost. The Trondheim fjord is the chosen case of study as it includes the third largest city in Norway which attracts a high variety of trips, from commuting trips till leisure ones. A stated preference survey was developed in order to build a discrete choice model which allow for calculating the value of travel and waiting time. The survey took place in two strategic areas along the fjord. A general questionnaire classified the respondents according to their travel patterns to provide them six different hypothetical situations to choose between, being these situations as close as reality as possible. Each situation had three alternatives, car, bus and speed boat. Each alternative had four attributes, travel time, waiting time, cost, and frequency, with three levels each. 250 valid observations were modeled using mixed logit models. As a result, differences in the values of time between modes were found. While the modes that are affected directly by a ferry replacement (bus and car) will suffer a considerable decrease, the speed boat value of travel time will keep almost equal. Therefore, the gain of availability, the inexistence of a ferry waiting time and the travel time savings of a ferry replacement will affect to the value of time. Not only it will be significant for the socio-economic analysis, but also this change could cause an enlargement of the metropolitan area of Trondheim, including the other side of the fjord, so the number of fjord crossing trips will be higher