Competitiveness of International Rail Passenger Transport

Abstract

Regular research during the design of rail passenger services shows that comfort is an important factor for prospective consumers planning travel. However, so much is included in the concept of "comfort" for each individual that has been asked that it is impossible to research this subject using a uniform method and to make measurements with one single value. The situation is even more complicated by the fact that the rules of business science allow the market to be segmented in many ways. This results that the approximately homogenous expectations (a) and willingness to pay (b) – concerning the fulfilment of expectations and, in the case of providing the desired service element, for the service element in question – of the smaller or larger groups thus formed can be evaluated individually.