This study explores the factors associated with passenger satisfaction on the UK railways. To uncover taste variation, the data was segmented into three homogeneous groups of passengers through a latent class ordered logit model, whereby the class allocation was based on observed personal and trip characteristics. The findings suggest that there is significant variation in the impact of service attributes on overall satisfaction across the segments, ‘class a’, ‘class b’ and ‘class c’. Class a (15% of the sample) consists of moderately dissatisfied to highly dissatisfied passengers, for whom ‘punctuality/reliability’ is most impactful on overall satisfaction. Respondents in this class are much more likely to experience adverse service conditions such as delays or crowding conditions. Class b (32% of the sample) consists of passenger who are quite critical and moderately satisfied, for whom ‘hedonic’ factors such as ‘upkeep and repair of the train’ and ‘seat comfort’ were most impactful. Finally, class c (53% of the sample) consists of passengers that are generally satisfied, and for whom the ‘value for money of the ticket price’ is most impactful on overall satisfaction. Interestingly, for both ‘class b’ and ‘class c’, ‘punctuality/reliability’ plays a more limited role in determining overall satisfaction compared to ‘class a’. This suggests that the role of ‘punctuality/reliability’ in determining overall satisfaction is more complex than presented in the literature thus far. Finally, unobserved taste variation plays an important role in the model, as the class allocation is not always easily linked to observed groups in the data. This paper thus highlights the importance of accounting for unobserved and systematic sources of heterogeneity in the data and could provide useful insights for analysts, policy makers and practitioners, to provide more targeted strategies to improve passenger satisfaction.

本研究探讨了与英国铁路乘客满意​​度相关的因素。为了揭示口味差异，通过潜在类别有序 Logit 模型将数据分为三个同质乘客组，其中类别分配基于观察到的个人和旅行特征。研究结果表明，服务属性对“a 类”、“b 类”和“c 类”细分市场总体满意度的影响存在显着差异。A 类（占样本的 15%）由中度不满意到高度不满意的乘客组成，对他们来说，“准时性/可靠性”对总体满意度影响最大。此类受访者更有可能遇到不利的服务条件，例如延误或拥挤状况。B 类（占样本的 32%）由非常挑剔和中等满意度的乘客组成，对他们来说，“火车的保养和维修”以及“座椅舒适度”等“享乐”因素影响最大。最后，c 类（占样本的 53%）由总体满意的乘客组成，对他们来说，“票价的性价比”对整体满意度影响最大。有趣的是，对于“b 级”和“c 级”来说，与“a 级”相比，“准时性/可靠性”在决定总体满意度方面的作用更为有限。这表明“准时性/可靠性”在确定总体满意度方面的作用比迄今为止文献中介绍的更为复杂。最后，未观察到的口味变化在模型中起着重要作用，因为类别分配并不总是很容易与数据中观察到的组相关联。因此，本文强调了考虑数据中未观察到的系统性异质性来源的重要性，并可以为分析师、政策制定者和从业者提供有用的见解，从而提供更有针对性的策略来提高乘客满意度。