Analyzing and assessing the relevance of last-mile-links for railway trips

1
Analyzing and assessing the relevance of
last-mile-links for railway trips
Dipl.-Ing. Dr. techn. Harald FREY Research Center
of Transport Planning and Traffic Engineering
Institute of Transportation Vienna University
of Technology
2
Part of the project Last mile link
The goal of the LML project (last mile link) is
the development of a special mobility service to
close the link on a travel with public means of
transportation between the final station and the
destination. The second goal is to serve a
service for local mobility at the travel
destination.
70 of all car travelers say the reduced mobility
at the final destination without an own car is an
essential decision criteria not to take public
means of transportation for a holiday trip.
The LML project will develop a general mobility
system including a business concept, the
advancement of electronic systems for reservation
and positioning (e.g. for mobile phones) and a
vehicle concept. The developed system will be
analyzed regarding to the cost effectiveness and
customers satisfaction.
3
The Last-mile

• Coverage last mile biggest obstacle in the
  mobility chain
• structural conditions of this part of the route
  affect mode choice of whole journey.
• Further restrictions especially for tourists (
  business travellers) arise concerning luggage
  transport and the lack of knowledge of timetables
  and surroundings
• What boundary conditions of the mobility system
  can contribute to reduce such barriers?
• conclusions for the reorganization of mobility
  in tourist regions in order to raise the share of
  rail tourists.

Method Subjective criteria for the mode choice
of 1.200 rail passengers were queried, and the
marginal conditions of three selected tourist
regions were compared with the mobility behaviour
at arrival, stay and departure.
4
Mobility chain

• Decision relevant
• road and rail infrastructure (attractiveness)
  interaction
• variety and convenience of public transport
  services (including processing of reservation,
  payment, etc. for the various elements of the
  travel chain)
• mobility-related information and link with
  information on objectives / attractions
• type of pooling of transport services with other
  tourism services

Source Planersocietät (2003)
5
Car vs. public transport
Completley different conditions for PT and PMT
Car, Private motorized traffic
Public transport
6
Analyzing the changes in tourist mobility
behaviour
Changes in the means of transportation for
holidays in Germany between the years 1954 and
1989.
There are no so-called "mobility needs". This
reflects a lack of satisfaction of other needs
(eg rest and recreation, sports, etc. ...)
Only with a serious view on the changes in the
(structural) boundary conditions (its causes)
strengthening of rail is possible.
7
Changes in the boundary conditions

• The construction of car infrastructure in the
  last 60 years has changed the traffic behaviour
  enormously 1 2 3.
• Especially for non day-to-day trips like holiday
  trips or free time trips on the weekend public
  transport lost a lot of share compared to other
  modes 4.
• The infrastructure for car traffic damaged the
  environment of sensitive areas and generated a
  lot of negative effects paid by the society 2.
• The infrastructure of railways was (is) weakened
  by cutting of branch lines (still done in
  Austria) which affects the accessibility of
  several regions.
• The processes of urban sprawl due to the
  increasing speed in motorised transport reduced
  the chances of public transport, particularly the
  railway system, even further 3.

8
Relevance of Information
Even if guests are made ??aware when booking
through intensive information on the (good)
public transport accessibility of their
destination it can be assumed that a non-existent
public transport use experience exclude the
possibility of usage PT. (Source Planersocietät,
2003)
PT-arrival
PMT-arrival
Same day day before over the week during
month half year earlier
Only in combination and clear prioritization a
modal shift to public transport is possible
(reduce capacity for motorized traffic and
simultaneously "warning" from congestions, etc.)
Source Planersocietät (2003)

• Information as a command variable in
  transportation
• Affects mode choice as a function of the
  attractors
• Soft facts for example www.tourenautofrei.at/,
  green tourism, etc, ...
• Hard facts structural conditions (car-free
  tourism destinations, pedestrian area, etc.) vs.
  Car availability

9
Examples for an area wide last-mile linkage with
public transport

• On site visitors without a car should have
  concrete benefits, for example, Rail and bus
  stops located closer to the target (bus stops
  closer to the destination than car parking
  spaces)
• Car free areas
• etc

10
Situation

• 13.4 of Austrian citizens used the railway for
  their holiday trips within Austria, compared to
  5.8 for foreign country trips in 2008 . Less
  than 10 used the railway for overall tourist
  trips 5.
• The mode choice is influenced by
• local/regional mobility services (hiking and
  ski-buses, valley bus concepts, etc.) and
  accompanying measures (car-free townships,
  collecting parking area)
• mobility infrastructure
• linkage (Railway station, connection to busses,
  pick-up services, etc.)
• information (e.g. about local mobility services)
• frequency of changing means of transport
• luggage transport supply
• information about real costs of travelling
• measurements for sensitization

11
Mobility behaviour
Causes for behaviour (car-user)
Need to change
Transportation of luggage
Large distance from station to destination
12
Means of transportation specific groups
Survey of mobility behaviour of alpinists and
hikers in the Austrian alps (2005/2006)
Means of transportations for arrival
Means of transportations used in the region
Car 85
Car 59
In Switzerland, 45 of the mountain climbers use
public transport, almost three times higher than
in Austria (Muharet al., 2008).
13
Milieu studies
Different typologies regarding different mobility
offers and traffic calming measurements (Source
Schindler 1999)
1. Eco-Conscious 23,4 prefers arrival by
PT sets not so much value on PT on site 2.
price-sensitive PT suppporter 35,1 locally
PT offers are very important wants pick
up/last-mile service very price-sensitive
3. car-freaks 16,1 arrival by car no on
site PT use 4. price-sensitive 25,4
especially no cost increase -gt free of costs PT
Between the groups no differences in age and
profession, children, net income were
found.public transport supporters are rather
long-term guests and that both public transport
supporters and the price-sensitives can be
inspired to switch. Source Schindler,1999
14
Milieu studies

• Car-free mobility (Germany)
• About one-quarter of households living without
  cars
• in large cities with over 500,000 inhabitants,
• 30-40 one in three households is car-free
• these are rather young and older people, rather
  Singles
• high satisfaction with the car-free (75-90)
• Deficits seen in the leisure traffic
• one third of car-free households voluntarily
  disclaimed (higher income and education)
• Source Schlaffer 2002

If the quality of the last-mile linkage is
improved the public transport system in the
region can be encouraged. 78 of the respondents
could imagine to use public transport to reach
their destination.
15
Survey
Subjective criteria for the mode choice of 1.200
rail passengers between Vienna, Salzburg and
Bischofshofen (Salzburg region) were queried and
the conditions of three selected tourist regions
were compared with the mobility behaviour at
arrival, stay and departure. The survey was done
in two regions (Attersee and Wachau) and in
Werfenweng, a soft-tourist-mobility best practice
township.
Criteria Werfenweng Attersee Wachau
Soft-mobility as an issue in the regional tourism
Tourism intensity
Amount of same-day visitors -
Arrival by car
Arrival rail/bus -
16
Survey

• choice of transportation
• Questions on criteria the people based their
  decision on (about the mode of transport to/from
  the destination)
• differentiation between primary means of
  transport (for the longest part of the trip) and
  the last mile to the destination. respondents
  were asked to evaluate the transport connection
  based on subjective criteria (school grade
  system) and to give information about the
  (subjective) accessibility for certain means of
  transportation.
• Relevant questions regarding the improvement of
  mobility at the location of the vacation or
  business trip were asked. respondents should rank
  predefined criteria in the order of importance.

17
The possibilities of local mobility (besides the
transport of luggage) were the main reason why
people have chosen their car and did not travel
with public transport.
18
For those tourists who travel by train the
comfort criteria is most relevant
19
A shuttle service from or to the railway station
and a good public transport system in the holiday
region is (besides free tickets for public
transport) important.
20
(No Transcript)
21
Example from the mobility log
Other indicators duration of the activities,
dartizipation with other persons, means of
transportation, etc.
22
Car-free communities
Car-free communities (e.g. Zermatt in
Switzerland) show how efficient and sustainable
mobility of tourists can be locally achieved. The
town centre is closed for cars and people have to
park their cars at a collecting parking area
outside. People who arrive by train have the same
or even better conditions to manage the last mile
to their destination, if the station is nearby
the town centre. Electric vehicles take the
people to their final destination 12.
23

• A comparison of capabilities of car-free
  respectively so called soft-mobil touristic
  offerings shows that at least 20 of tourists
  could be easily reached 11.
• Not the accessibility of the community is the
  main important issue for holiday-makers but the
  quality of nature and the possibilities of
  recovery or other activities 5.
• The local organisation of the motorized vehicles
  affects the means of transportation onsite and
  has a significant influence on the life quality
  for the inhabitants of tourist communities as
  well as the quality of holidays for tourists.
• Werfenweng in Austria shows approaches for an
  organisation of local mobility without direct
  railway accessibility.

• Car-free townships show that people adopt their
  behaviour under consideration of local boundary
  conditions. An intelligent organization of the
  motorised individual traffic enhances the chances
  for public transport and manages the problem of
  the last-mile link.

24
References
1 Environmental Balance of Transport Austria
1950-1996, Data Handbook, Federal Ministry for
the Environment, Youth and Family Affairs,
Vienna, 1997 2 Verkehr in Zahlen Österreich -
Ausgabe 2007, Bundesministerium für Verkehr,
Innovation und Technologie, Vienna, 2007 3 H.
Knoflacher Grundlagen der Verkehrs- und
Siedlungsplanung Verkehrsplanung, Verlag Böhlau,
2007 4 Verkehrsclub Österreich 1/1994, Wege zum
Autofreien Tourismus, Wien, 1994 5 Statistik
Austria, Urlaubs- und Geschäftsreisen 2008, Wien,
2008 6 Muhar A., Schauppenlehner T.,
Brandenburg C., Arnberger A., Trends- und
Handlungsbedarf im Sommer-Bergtourismus, in
OeAV-Dokumente Nr. 5, Aktivierungsprogramm
umweltfreundliche Anreise in die Berge,
Innsbruck, 2008 7 http//www.vmobil.at/ 8
Forschungsforum 3/95. Autofreier Tourismus in
Österreich. Das Tälerbusprojekt Lungau, Murau,
Nockgebiet Ein innovatives Modell, 1995 9
Planersocietät, Ergebnisse der Besucherbefragung
im Landkreis Wernigerode unter Berücksichtigung
einer freizeitmobilitätsstilbasierten Typologie
Bericht für das Projekt MobiHarz -
Mobilitätsmanagement und service für einen
umweltfreundlichen Ausflugs- und
Kurzurlaubsverkehr, 2003 10 Umweltbundesamt
Österreich Erreichbarkeiten alpiner
Tourismusstandorte mit dem öffentlichen Verkehr,
Wien, 2009 11 Ch. Schindler (1998), Chancen
sanfter Mobilität in Österreich die Akzeptanz
von Verkehrsberuhigungsmaßnahmen, ÖGAF Tourismus
Memo, 1999 12 http//de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zerma
tt
25
Thank you for attention!
contact Harald Frey Phone 43 (1) 588
01-23117 Fax [phone] Email harald.f
rey_at_tuwien.ac.at