Accommodating underlying pro-environmental attitudes in a rail travel context: Application of a latent variable latent class specification

•Links desire for greenhouse gas reductions to underlying environmental attitudes.•Treats these attitudes as latent components.•Makes use of latent class latent variable framework in environmental valuation.

Using data from a stated preference survey conducted in the UK, we show how the relative importance that rail travellers attach to reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and faster journey times varies strongly as a function of underlying attitudes towards the environment. We specify a latent class structure that allocates respondents to two classes with substantially different valuations of greenhouse gas emissions, and show how the allocation of a given respondent to either class is a function of underlying attitudes that also drive the answers to a number of attitudinal questions. We also show how these underlying attitudes are a function of a number of socio-demographic characteristics, with female respondents, older respondents, and respondents with a university degree having a stronger pro-environmental attitude, with the opposite applying to respondents with regular car access.