Impact of comfort enhancement measures on traveller satisfaction and ridership : an ex-post analysis for the province of North-Brabant

Travelling by public transport may involve having to change modes of transport and thus having to wait for transfer. In many cases waiting for the next modality to arrive is experienced as taking three times as long. To reduce the perceived waiting time, the Dutch Railways (NS) are using comfort enhancement measures to improve the waiting experience and customer satisfaction at railway stations. The comfort enhancement measures are expected to improve the travellers’ comfort and experience at the railway station by improving the travellers’ emotion (e.g. architecture, ambiance, colours, light, etc.) and/or physical activity (e.g. spending time usefully, comfortable waiting, etc.) allowing waiting to be a comfortable and pleasant experience for travellers. These two needs account for 21% of the customer satisfaction of travellers and are expected to become more relevant as emotional experience becomes increasingly important in society.