Document

Author
Jisun Kim, John Preston & Kirsten Revell
Abstract
Reducing the negative effects of train crowding could improve passengers’ travel experience by moderating stress, and enhancing comfort. Although crowding seems unavoidable due to an increase in the number of passengers, it should be handled effectively. Thus, this study aims to help improve overcrowding issues by exploring the effects of occupancy information developed to encourage passenger behaviour change. This will be achieved by identifying factors affecting their decision making regarding selection of carriage, and measuring their intentions to board a less occupied carriage as a response to occupancy information. An online questionnaire was conducted, and 119 rail users participated in the study. The majority of them reported that the information was helpful (91%), and they were willing to move to board an emptier carriage if they had been informed (93%). Additionally, the occupancy information was a significant predictor of a passenger’s intention to move to board less busy carriages for proposed travel scenarios as verified in ordinal logistic regression models.