In western society time pressure is becoming more and more important in daily life of many people. Travel time is often seen as wasted time and people involved in transport organizations make a great effort to decrease travel times. Examples are enhancing the capacity of (rail)roads, increasingthe frequency of trains, enhancing the mean speed of trains, reducing theinterchange time and so on. Literature on the value of (travel) time suggests that waiting is seen as the most annoying time and people perceive time to pass slower then it actually does. This feeling will be stronger when they have important things to do in advance. Reducing the actual wait will have an effect on the travel time and on the appreciation of the service. It is possible to change the appreciation of the waiting time by makingthe waiting environment more attractive. When people can use their time while travelling in a useful or pleasant way, time seems less useless and customers quality perception of the total service will enhance. Through thecreation of an attractive waiting environment at stations and the supply of convenience stores, the value of waiting time can be enhanced. In the present study, customers' behaviour was inconspicuously observed in four railway stations. Fifty students of the University Twente recorded the activities of 130 railway customers. The students also recorded the total time customers spent at the railway station, and more specifically the exact time they used for their activities. The activities of customers at the platform, in normal situations and under conditions of train delay, were observed. When the observed travellers mounted their train they were asked to fill out a questionnaire while travelling by train. In the questionnaire, respondents were asked how long they thought they had waited at the platform, what they did think about the stations ambience and how they felt whilewaiting. In this way it is possible to assess if people perceive waiting time longer than the actual waiting time and how they felt emotionally during the wait (for instance happy or agitated). When finished, the studentscollected the inquiries and returned to the station to observe another customer. To estimate the difference between actual and subjectively perceived waiting time it was necessary to record the perceived waiting time and emotions right after people had left the platform. Analyses show that people indeed perceived waiting at the platform longer than they actually waited up to two times the actual wait. When trains are delayed, the overestimation was greatest. People think that the waiting environment is grey, unpleasant and crowded at one station. It seems that people while waiting arevery focused on the arriving of their train and are anxious to miss any information that will make miss their train. In a delayed situation people are, as expected, more irritated and have a more negative evaluation of the total service. For the covering abstract see ITRD E137145.
Abstract