Changing times – A decade of empirical insight into the experience of rail passengers in Great Britain

Abstract

In the last decade the number of rail passenger journeys in Great Britain has increased by half and car trips per person are down by a tenth. Meanwhile there has been significant growth in internet use and ownership of smartphones. Travel patterns are changing in tandem with adoption of digital age innovations. At a time when Britain is also poised to invest tens of billions of pounds in high speed rail, this paper examines how the experience of rail Historically, transport analysis has stemmed from the premise that travel is a derived demand -people are undertaking journeys at a cost to them (in terms of time and money in particular)in order to realise benefit from the activities they engage in upon reaching their destinations.Relative costs between different options for travel mode, route and destination have been important considerations in attempts to interpret and model travel behaviour. Treatment of journey experience in such contexts has tended to be in terms of journey comfort, convenience, reliability and safety, alongside time and cost. There has been little interest in accounting for how people's travel time itself is used or valued within transport analysis. This may seem rather surprising given that for England in 2014, the average person spent on average one hour per day travelling (DfT, 2014a). This amounts to a daily resource of 54 million hours for the population of England as a whole -or some 62 million hours for the population of Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales).However, in the last ten or so years (stemming from earlier work by Mokhtarian and Growing uncertainty about the future of car travel -In a number of countries with developed economies and mature transport systems, something peculiar has happened over the ten year period -the historic growth in total car travel (total distance travelled) has not continued and car travel per person per year (measured by distance) has in some cases been in decline (Goodwin, 2012; Goodwin and Van Denker, 2013). Attention is now being devoted to better understanding the possible factors contributing to this phenomenon. These include limited road capacity in cities, a trend in urbanisation, fewer young people learning to drive and growing reliance on digital connectivity in society -as well as economic conditions. There is no professional consensus on whether the future trend in car travel will be one of growth, plateau or decline (Lyons and Goodwin, 2014). Alongside this phenomenon (which has been given the shorthand term 'peak car') there is also now much (hyped) consideration of the prospects for a future of the car as a self-driving vehicle. This sits alongside the notion of a 'sharing economy' emerging (Botsman and Rogers, 2010) in which people are more inclined to share the use of resources including vehicles. This might lead to a greater share of car use experience being as a passenger rather than as a driver.In tandem with the developments above, questions designed by the first two authors of this explores what the implications m...

Mobile devices and their effect on the sociality on Dutch Intercity trains

“…First, our findings bring nuance to the dominant idea that mobile devices like laptops, headphones and mobile phones contribute to incivility (Valentine 2008), detachment (Hatuka and Toch 2016) and ignorance (Kumar and Makarova 2008;Kim 2012). Certainly, these devices have greatly reconfigured (the perception of) travel time (Jain and Lyons 2008;Lyons, Jain, and Weir 2016) and social relations in public spaces. Our observations illustrate that passengers are often very self-absorbed; gazing at their screens, seemingly shutting others out.…”

“…First, they are frequent train riders out of necessity, as opposed to, for example, the age group between 30 and 50 who often have the option to travel by car (Kampert et al 2017). They are the potential passengers of the future that need to be attracted or retained, yet research has shown younger people have more negative experiences of public transport than older people (Clayton, Jain, and Parkhurst 2016) and consequently find their travel time less worthwhile (Watts and Urry 2008;Lyons et al 2013;Lyons, Jain, and Weir 2016). Moreover, they are often seen as 'perpetrators of disruptive acts' (Ocejo and Tonnelat 2014, 497) and the digital generation that was 'born with a mouse in their hands and a computer screen as their window to the world' (Lindstrom and Seybold 2003, 24).…”

“…I enjoy doing those things' (Lola). Many observed passengers make phone calls during their ride, suggesting this has become accepted social behaviour (Lyons, Jain, and Weir 2016). Calls vary from short and concise to elaborate and personal, from soft and discrete to rather loud.…”

“…Jennifer concurs in her diary: 'Having a conversation can be nice if you have time available and feel like it.' Conversations are more common and appreciated during such recreational trips (Lyons, Jain, and Weir 2016), as Lola describes: 'my mind-set is different then and I am engaged in different activities (…) When you're travelling in the afternoon and someone drops something, you smile at each other signalling that something like that could have happened to you as well. But when someone drops her mascara during the morning rush hour, I think: "watch yourself!"'…”

“…There already is a well-established body of literature that discusses the experience and value of travel-time (e.g. Clayton, Jain, and Parkhurst 2016;Lyons et al 2013;Lyons, Jain, and Weir 2016), which acknowledges that time spent in public transport should not be seen as wasted or empty (Watts and Urry 2008), but as a personal gift (Jain and Lyons 2008) or an opportunity for encounters and public engagement (Jensen 2009;Bissell 2010Bissell , 2016Wilson 2011;Koefoed, Dissing Christensen, and Simonsen 2017). The academic debate is often dominated by such dichotomous interpretations, such as juxtaposing the unwanted with the 'ideal' journey (Clayton, Jain, and Parkhurst 2016) or the social with the non-social (Kim 2012).…”