Passenger preferences in rail transport in Poland as regards travelling time and cost

The paper includes an analysis of passengers’ preferences in the context of selected marketing activities conducted by leading railway companies operating in the passenger transport sector in Poland. Operators’ offers are highly varied, which may make it difficult to find the benefits expected by the passenger. Basing on earlier research, the main categories covered by operators’ classic marketing activities include the time and cost of the journey, and, less frequently, safety and comfort. The purpose of the analysis was to find whether the categories of time and price (cost categories) applied in most of the marketing activities, used for development of the operator’s offer, corresponded with contemporary passengers’ preferences. The conclusions are based on the results of primary research conducted on a random-quota sample of 1012 passengers. Research results—major factors determining preferences among long-distance passengers included trip duration and favorable departure hours, whereas the price was not a major issue. The importance of price increased with the age of respondents. Moreover, on short-distance routes, price and time were major factors depending on the domicile of respondents. The smaller the town, the more important these two factors were.