Integration of HSR and air transport: Understanding passengers’ preferences

•We analyse the key drivers that facilitate intermodal connectivity between Air and high-speed rail.•We employ a discrete choice experiment to better understand passengers’ preferences.•We estimate flexible choice models accounting for systematic and random taste heterogeneity.•We obtain a range of willingness-to-pay values for service quality attributes.•We show that the schedule coordination will be paramount in order to promote intermodality.

Different solutions for the integration of high-speed rail (HSR) and air transport could be implemented, ranging from very basic integration to more sophisticated systems which include ticket and handling integration. A discrete choice experiment is conducted to better understand passengers’ preferences. We estimate a number of flexible choice models, taking into account the existence of systematic and random taste heterogeneity. We obtain a range of willingness-to-pay values for service quality attributes, finding some important results that can be used to infer policy conclusions about the real attractiveness of the Air–HSR integrated alternative. In this respect, we find that schedule coordination which reduces connecting time will be crucial.

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