Explaining Factors for Train Use in European Long-Distance Travel

The desire to travel more imposes an increasing pressure on sustainability. The European policy is directed to revitalizing railways. This policy demands for knowledge on long-distance travel, in particular modal choice between the train and its alternatives. This paper contributes to this knowledge by analysing factors that influence train use in long-distance travel in Europe. The focus is on tourist travel. Both background variables relating to characteristics of the traveller, household and journey, and quality variables relating to the service levels of the train and alternative modes play a role. The analysis produced a long list of significant background variables, most important are number of participants in the journey, car ownership, size of the destination city, home country and need to cross national borders. Significant quality variables are time and costs of both train and car, and number of interchanges. There is also evidence about significant influences of the obligation to reserve a seat on a particular train. Frequency has no significant influence. The analysis demonstrates that tourists do not differ significantly from all long-distance travellers, partly because they account for the major part of all long-distance travellers.