Wider Factors affecting the long-term growth in Rail Travel

Introduction The aim of the modelling methodology that has been adopted is to maximise the quality of the evidence that can be derived from the NTS dataset in order to identify unambiguously the primary influences on rail passenger travel demand for each of four individual travel purposes. [...] An overview of the main steps in the development of the model has already been presented in Section 3.6 of the Report, while tabulations and interpretations of the estimated results for individual journey purposes are presented in its Chapters 7 to 9. [...] The Modelling Methodology The analysis of spatial and temporal trends in commuter rail travel within the main report has indicated: a) that the rate of rail usage differs greatly between different types of individuals as well as between workers in different types of jobs; b) that the rate of rail usage differs greatly depending on the particular type of area in which an individual is resident or i. [...] However, because the main focus of this study was on the general analysis of rail trends, rather than on the development of modelling methodologies, sufficient resources were not available to carry out the exploratory research that would have been required to complete this task satisfactorily, including the challenges of the relatively small sample sizes for rail travel within some of these purpos. [...] The area type of the address of the workplace of an individual is known within the NTS, which is how the commuter destination could be used as a variable within the commuting analysis.