This paper describes a project undertaken for the Netherlands Railways to determine the factors which might cause people travelling from the Eastern Dutch City of Nijmegen to the Western cities of Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague to use rail instead of car or vice-versa. A stated preference experiment was designed and administered on portable microcomputers in respondents' homes. This data collection method has been developed by Hague Consulting Group together with the Transport Studies Unit at Oxford. The paper covers three main areas. First, the design of the experiment is described in terms of the journey and socioeconomic factors included, and the way in which hypothetical choice situations were created. These included both choices between alternative rail services and choices between rail and car in the context of a recent journey which was actually made by one of these modes. The statistical and presentational aspects of the experiment, are also discussed with particular emphasis on how the microcomputer can be used to improve the efficiency of data collection while making the choices as clear and realistic as possible. Next, the fieldwork stage of the study is described. The reactions of interviewers and respondents to using the computer are discussed, as well as the issues involving survey preparation, interviewer training, household interviews, and data gathering and processing. Here, there are some interesting contrasts with manual stated preference methods. The results are also presented and include estimation of the relative importance of changes in rail fare, journey time, interchange and in-train comfort. These factors are analyzed in light of respondents' journey and socioeconomic characteristics and attitudes towards car and rail. Of particular interest are differences in mode-switching behaviour between those who currently use rail and those who currently use car. A description of how the results are used to forecast responses to service and policy changes is also provided.
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