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For Immediate Release October 31, 1996
Contact: Cristi Allen
callen@decisionanalyst.com
Phone: 817-640-6166

Arlington, Texas — Nobody wants to ride the train anymore. Right? No, dead wrong! In a major nationally representative survey of 10,000 households by Decision Analyst, Inc., 14% of all U.S. adults (that’s 27 million people) said that they would ride the train often if "regularly scheduled, high quality train service were available." Another 43% of U.S. adults (or 84 million people) indicated that they would ride the train occasionally, if such service were available.

"These data suggest that a huge latent market for train travel exists in the United States," according to Jerry W. Thomas, President/CEO of Decision Analyst, Inc. "And these data must be viewed as conservative or lower-limit numbers, given that many U.S. adults have never experienced long-distance travel by train. Likewise, the relative low levels of advertising and promotional support of travel by train makes the survey numbers lower than they otherwise would be."

"With sufficient investment in infrastructure and rail equipment to reach critical mass (especially newer, faster trains and greater frequency of schedule)," said Thomas, "it would appear that a great opportunity exists for a rail renaissance in the United States."

As might be expected, the Decision Analyst study reveals the highest interest in riding trains is in the Northeast Census Region, where train transportation is most highly developed. Interest in traveling by train is second highest in the West Census Region. The Midwest and South Census Regions are least interested in riding trains (see attached graphs).

Also, interest in riding trains tends to go up slightly with age (see attached graph). That is, the older you are, the more likely it is that you are interested in riding trains. But, the real surprise in the data is that so many young people are interested in train transportation. The appeal of train travel across all the different age groups is a real surprise, and confirmation that train travel enjoys a broad base of public support.

"It is ironic that train transportation receives so little support from the U.S. Government," according to Thomas. "Trains are the most energy efficient and the most environmentally friendly mode of transportation, compared to cars and airlines, yet trains receive meager subsidies compared to the other two types of transportation. Governmental expenditures on automobiles (for road and bridge construction, traffic control systems, pollution abatement, police, etc.) add up to tens of billions of dollars each year. Similarly, governments collectively spend billions and billions annually on air transportation (for airports, air traffic control systems, regulatory oversight, and security). In comparison, governmental subsidies for train transportation are only a few hundred million annually."

The study of 10,000 U.S. households was conducted in the fall of 1995. The survey’s margin of error is approximately plus or minus one percent.

Question: "If regularly scheduled, high quality train service were available from your city to other destinations, which of the following would be true: I would ride the train often, I would ride the train occasionally, I would seldom ride the train, I would never ride the train?"

For additional information contact:
Cristi Allen
Publicity
Email: callen@decisionanalyst.com
Phone: 1.800.ANALYSIS (262.5974)
Address: 604 Avenue H East
Arlington, TX 76011

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