EXPLORING THE INFLUENCE OF DEMOGRAPHICS, AWARENESS, AND INDUCING FACTORS ON PREFERENCE OF RAILWAY SERVICES
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.12727/ajts.35.8Keywords:
NSG Railway Station, Pollachi, Demographics, Inducing factors, Awareness, Preference, Travel, Railway industry, Railway ministryAbstract
The railway is the largest and cheapest transportation facility for Indian passengers. The primary objective of the study was to develop a model to estimate the influence of demographic, awareness, and inducing factors on the preference for non-suburban stations. Pollachi Station is an NSG–5 category Indian railway station in the Palakkad railway division of the Southern Railway zone. However, Pollachi station is not a primary transport hub among passengers due to its location, limited train services, and inadequate facilities. The study attempts to identify what kind of passengers are aware of and prefer the Pollachi railway services on the basis of demographic factors. The study is quantitative and empirical. Primary data were collected through a structured questionnaire from passengers who regularly use Pollachi railway station. The study found that factors such as education up to higher secondary, income levels up to ₹15,000 and above ₹50,001, awareness of intermodality and technological features, and inducing factors like perceived service value positively influence the railway service preference. The study provides insights to the Indian Railway Ministry about passenger preference towards the NSG-5 level railway stations and services to enhance them.
References
Alvan, S., et al. (2021). The Influence of Socio-Demographic and Activity-Travel Participation Variables on Mode Choice for the New Railway Development in South Sulawesi, Indonesia (Case: Makassar-Parepare Line). In: Mohammed, B.S., Shafiq, N., Rahman M. Kutty, S., Mohamad, H., Balogun, AL. (eds) ICCOEE2020. ICCOEE 2021. Lecture Notes in Civil Engineering, vol 132. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-33-6311-3_103
Alvinsyah, Muhammad Rezki Mulyono (2024). A comparison of rail factor on user preference in selecting mode of travel for city with and without mass transport service. AIP Conf. Proc, 2710 (1): 060002. https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0162210
Anwer, I.; et al. (2024). Travelers ’Propensity to Use Intercity Railway Services in Emerging Economies: Significance of Passengers’ Satisfaction and Communication Technologies. Sustainability, 16,8921.
Da Silva PF, Mendes JG (2020). Passengers' comfort perception and demands on railway vehicles: a review. KnE Eng 5(6):257–270. https://doi.org/10.18502/keg.v5i6.7039.
Edakkotte Shaji (2020). A Study on Awareness About Facilities Provided by Indian Railway with Reference to Kozhikode Railway Station. International Journal of Creative Research Thoughts (IJCRT), 8(5), 977-989.
Elliott, A. C., & Woodward, W. A. (2007). Statistical Analysis Quick Reference Guidebook. SAGE Publications, Inc., https://doi.org/10.4135/9781412985949
Hak Lee, E., et al. (2021). Estimating Express Train Preference of Urban Railway Passengers Based on Extreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost) using Smart Card Data. Transportation Research Record, 2675(11), 64-76. https://doi.org/10.1177/03611981211013349
Imoleayo A. Awodele, et al. (2024). Awareness, adoption readiness and challenges of railway 4.0 technologies in a developing economy. Heliyon ,10 (4), e25934. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e25934
Li, N., et al. (2025). Fare Structure Optimization of Intercity Railway With Regional Passenger Income Disparities. IET Intell. Transp. Syst., 19: e70041. https://doi.org/10.1049/itr2.70041
Mahdieh Sedghi, et al. (2021). A taxonomy of railway track maintenance planning and scheduling: A review and research trends. Reliability Engineering & System Safety, 215, 107827. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ress.2021.107827.
Meyer-Hollatz, T., et al. (2024). Understanding information needs for seamless intermodal transportation: Evidence from Germany. Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment, 130,104161. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trd.2024.104161.
Ojha, M. K. (2020). Quality of service delivery at railway platforms: A case of Allahabad Junction railway station. Case Studies on Transport Policy, 8(3), 1087-1095.
Oostendorp, R., Gebhardt, L. (2018). Combining means of transport as a users' strategy to optimize traveling in an urban context: empirical results on intermodal travel behavior from a survey in Berlin. Journal of Transport Geography, 71, 72-83. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2018.07.006.
R. Shunmugaselvi., V. Daling Selvi (2023). Technological implications for railway passengers. International Journal of Humanities, Law and Social Sciences, 11(1-10),73-79.
Rahman, N., et al. (2022). Exploratory Study on Self-Awareness and Self-Preparedness of Malaysian Rail Passengers for Emergency Evacuations. Transportation Engineering,7, 100105. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.treng.2022.100105.
Roberto Sañudo, et al. (2019). Addressing the Importance of Service Attributes in Railways. Sustainability, 11, 3411. doi:10.3390/su11123411.
Rosa, G. (2021). Passenger Preferences in Rail Transport in Poland as Regards Travelling Time and Cost. Sustainability, 13, 4737.
Roy, S., et al. (2024). Exploring the passengers’ socio-economic structure and its impact on the perception of railway infrastructures and services in Tripura, India. Public Transp 16, 213–240. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12469-023-00328-5
Sañudo, R., et al. (2019). Addressing the Importance of Service Attributes in Railways. Sustainability, 11(12), 3411. https://doi.org/10.3390/su11123411
V.S. Palaniappan (2015). "Pollachi Railway Station on track to cross rare milestone". The Hindu. Coimbatore. Retrieved 4 January 2016.
Vishnuvarthani, S., Selvaraj, A. (2013). Railway passengers’ awareness on services: a study in Salem Division of Southern Railway. The International Journal of Management, 2(1), 1-15.
Wang, B., et al. (2024). Road–Rail Intermodal Travel Mode Choice Behaviour Considering Attitude Factors. Sustainability, 16, 5955.
Yatmar, H., et al. (2021). The Impact of Socio-Demographic and Activity-Travel Participation Variables on Mode Choice Preference of Sub-urban Commuters: A Case Study on the New Railway Operation in Maros-Makassar Line. In: Mohammed, B.S., Shafiq, N., Rahman M. Kutty, S., Mohamad, H., Balogun, AL. (eds) ICCOEE2020. ICCOEE 2021. Lecture Notes in Civil Engineering, vol 132. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-33-6311-3_107
Zhang, Y., et al. (2019). Passengers’ Demand Characteristics Experimental Analysis of EMU Trains with Sleeping Cars in Northwest China. Sustainability, 11(19), 5338. https://doi.org/10.3390/su11195338
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Atna Journal of Tourism Studies
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
