Part-time commuters and fares: a qualitative study
Findings from qualitative research which explored part-time commuting patterns and passengers' views on different types of flexible season ticket.
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This report presents findings of research into part-time and flexible commuters. The objectives for the research were to:
- explore passengers’ current commuting patterns and future commuting intentions in comparison to pre-COVID-19, including looking at the number of days a week that passengers commute
- examine passengers’ views and preferences with regard to different aspects of a ticketing product (such as ticket price, ‘bundle size’, length of time that tickets a ticket is valid, purchasing channel and ticket type)
- understand if commuters would change their travel patterns and intentions in response to flexible season tickets being made available
- test how passengers would rate the products against the principles for a good pricing system identified in previous BritainThinks fares and ticketing research and against the objectives for UK rail fares trials
This qualitative research was commissioned by the Department for Transport and conducted by BritainThinks in August 2020.
The project involved testing a variety of flexible season-type ticket options. The research was conducted with an interactive online community of 56 participants over 2 weeks and with 6 to 7 participants from that community during each of 8 90-minute focus groups.
This research was published alongside quantitative flexible fares research and follows on from research into Passenger views on rail fares and pricing, published in May 2021.