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Leisure facilities in railway station areas: interdependency of leisure facilities and railway stations in terms of location choice motives and visitors / train travelers.

Kruijs, Tim van de (2013) Leisure facilities in railway station areas: interdependency of leisure facilities and railway stations in terms of location choice motives and visitors / train travelers.

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Abstract:Although leisure mobility accounts for the largest share in trips of people mobility, there has been amazingly little attention for leisure mobility in scientific research. A small part of leisure mobility consists of people traveling by public transport. NS has noticed that it seems as if leisure facilities tend to locate themselves more often in station areas and wants to gain insight in the role of stations in the location choice of leisure facilities. Furthermore, NS is interested in the number of visitors arriving by train, as they often travel during off-peak hours. So the research goal of this master thesis is: To provide insight in the role of stations in the location choice of leisure facilities and in the number of visitors that will use planned stations to visit leisure facilities. To examine the interdependency between leisure facilities and stations, interviews have been held with leisure facility representatives and academic experts. The number of people coming by train to leisure facilities has been researched by making use of a questionnaire at leisure facilities near stations in the Randstad and Twente. Visitors have been asked for their mode of transport, but also for their opinion on the accessibility of the facility and the importance of the station and reasons for their modal choice. The expert interviews pointed out that a station is very important in the location choice process of a leisure facility, however it is not decisive in their choice. Other factors like ground prices, enough visitors from nearby and general accessibility are of higher importance. The number of visitors taking the train to a leisure facility at a station location is very high: 23%. There are mutual differences between leisure facilities: a facility with a national catchment area attracts more train travelers than one with a local or regional catchment area. Cultural leisure facilities are also more likely to attract visitors by train. The importance of the nearby station is also emphasized by visitors: 52% of them considers not coming to the facility anymore if there was no station nearby. These results provide opportunities for NS. During off-peak hours there is still space available in trains to transport more people. This space can be filled with visitors of leisure facilities, as they usually travel during these off-peak hours. To achieve this, NS could consider to expand its assortment of leisure tickets available via ‘Spoordeelwinkel’. Spoordeelwinkel is an online shop aimed at selling a combination of train and leisure tickets with a discount. Another option is to discuss additional late night trains with specific leisure facilities that attract a lot of visitors. Finally, NS could also consider introducing group- or evening tickets. These competitively priced tickets will be an attractive alternative to a trip by car to leisure facilities
Item Type:Essay (Master)
Clients:
NS
Faculty:ET: Engineering Technology
Subject:56 civil engineering
Programme:Civil Engineering and Management MSc (60026)
Link to this item:https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/64251
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