Travel time use and its impact on high-speed-railway passengers' travel satisfaction in the e-society

ABSTRACT

The availability of wireless networks and the pervasive use of mobile ICT devices have allowed passengers to conduct various e-activities during journeys. These various e-activities, in turn, may change people's conventional perception of travel time from being “wasteful” and “unproductive,” to “desirable” and giving rise to satisfaction. Journeys on high-speed railway (HSR) is particularly relevant for transport researchers to probe into this question because of its characteristics of being medium to long-distance (typically taking half-an-hour or more), seat availability, and a smooth ride. Using a questionnaire survey on passengers along the Shanghai-Nanjing HSR route, this study aims to examine the nature of ICT device use and in-vehicle e-activities conducted by HSR passengers and the influence on their travel satisfaction with their on-board journey experience. Our results reveal a high percentage of ICT device use and a wide variety of e-activities such as e-working, e-communication, and e-reading for leisure on HSR trains. In addition, the higher use of ICT device was associated with an increase of passengers' travel satisfaction. Furthermore, we found a positive effect of work-related e-activities on travel satisfaction for business/work trips, while a positive effect of entertainment-related e-activities for non-business/work trips. Given that HSR is potentially a more sustainable transport mode, some possible policy implications are proposed to encourage people to use HSR, as opposed to driving or flying, for medium to long-distance intercity journeys.

KEYWORDS:

• China
• e-society
• high-speed railways
• travel satisfaction
• travel time use

Acknowledgments

The data of this paper have been collected together with the team led by Professor Feng Zhen of Nanjing University.

Notes

¹ For trains run mostly underground (such as MAGLEV and metro trains), window gazing is not popular.

² Other passengers' manner mainly refers to other passengers' behavior and conduct which may disturb respondents' in-vehicle e-activities/activities (for example, making noise and taking up others' space).

³ According to the regulation in China, a passenger can only board the HSR train through the ticket-gates in the waiting hall of the station. And they can only board the HSR train as designated in the ticket. If they missed the HSR train as designated in the ticket, they need to change the ticket for another train or return the ticket at the station ticket kiosks, which is usually inconvenient and takes much time. Therefore, passengers usually prefer to arrive in the waiting hall early to make sure that they can board the HSR train on time. And it is common that every HSR station in China has a large waiting hall for passengers.

⁴ We put only a few questions in the paper-based questionnaire which can be completed in a few minutes, to make sure that passengers who are in a hurry can also be included in our samples.

⁵ We determined the range of the rewards through the online survey system and then the system randomly generated a reward for each participant. Thus, the amount of the reward is different among respondents. And the money will be electronically transferred from the system to the respondent's WeChat account instantly when they tap the Wechat money transfer icon. It is estimated that almost every Chinese Internet user is a WeChat user (Tencent, 2016).

⁶ The online questionnaire includes 94 questions. In the pilot survey, we found that usually it took respondents around 15 minutes to finish the questionnaire. And on average, our respondents spent about 16 minutes on it.

⁷ Sleeping/window gazing/people watching is also introduced in the model because of its high percentage in HSR passengers' in-vehicle activities.

⁸ According to Tencent (2016), more than 90% of its users access Wechat daily and about half of them spend at least 90 minutes a day.

⁹ To reduce the time in filling out the questionnaire, in the part on activities during access and egress trips, the list of activity options has been simplified compared to the list in the part on activities during on-board trips. Four choices were offered to differentiate whether ICT was used and whether the activities were work-related.

¹⁰ 4,029 out of 4,059 (99.2%) full samples have carried smartphone while traveling.

¹¹ The opportunity of installing WIFI on HSR trains has not yet arrived. Accessed 14 March 2017, from http://www.china.com.cn/lianghui/news/2017-03/07/content_40421882.htm

¹² Using ICT devices that connects to the Internet on airplanes is still forbidden in China so far. And compared to HSR trains, providing WIFI on airplanes faces more resistance and pressure from Ari Force which controls about 80% of airspace in China.

¹³ More details can be obtained from http://news.xinhuanet.com/fortune/2016-03/07/c_128779087.htm