In the public transport industry, travellers’ perceived satisfaction is a key element in understanding their evaluation of, and loyalty to ridership. Despite its notable importance, studies of customer satisfaction are under-represented in the literature, and most previous studies are based on survey data collected from a single city only. This does not allow a comparison across different transport systems. To address this underrepresentation, this paper reports on a study of train passengers’ satisfaction with the fare paid for their most recent home-based train trip in five Australian capital cities: Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, and Perth. Two data sources are used: a nation-wide survey, and objective information on the train fare structure in each of the targeted cities. In particular, satisfaction with train fares is modelled as a function of socio-economic factors and train trip characteristics, using a random parameters ordered Logit model that accounts for unobserved heterogeneity in the population. Results indicate that gender, city of origin, transport mode from home to the train station, eligibility for either student or senior concession fare, one-way cost, and waiting time as well as five diverse interaction variables between city of origin and socio-economic factors are the key determinants of passenger satisfaction with train fares. In particular, this study reveals that female respondents tend to be less satisfied with their train fare than their male counterparts. Interestingly, respondents who take the bus to the train station tend to feel more satisfied with their fare compared with the rest of the respondents. In addition, notable heterogeneity is detected across respondents’ perceived satisfaction with train fare, specifically with regard to the one-way cost and the waiting time incurred. An intercity comparison reveals that a city’s train fare structure also affects a traveller’s perceived satisfaction with their train fare. The findings of this research are significant for both policy makers and transport operators, allowing them to understand traveller behaviours, and to subsequently formulate effective transit policies.

在公共交通行业中，旅行者的感知满意度是理解他们对乘车评价和忠诚度的关键因素。尽管其重要性非常显着，但客户满意度研究在文献中所占的比例仍然不足，并且大多数先前的研究仅基于从单个城市收集的调查数据。这不允许在不同的运输系统之间进行比较。为了解决这种代表性不足的情况，本文报道了火车乘客对他们在澳大利亚的五个首都城市（悉尼，墨尔本，布里斯班，阿德莱德和珀斯）最近进行的基于家庭的火车旅行所支付的票价的满意度的研究。使用了两个数据源：全国范围内的调查以及每个目标城市中火车票价结构的客观信息。尤其是，使用随机参数排序的Logit模型对人口中未观察到的异质性进行解释，将火车票价的满意度建模为社会经济因素和火车出行特征的函数。结果表明，性别，原籍城市，从家到火车站的交通方式，学生或高级优惠票价的资格，单程费用和等待时间，以及原籍城市与社会经济之间的五个不同的交互变量因素是决定乘客对火车票价满意度的关键因素。尤其是，这项研究表明，女性受访者对火车票价的满意度不如男性受访者。有趣的是，与其余的受访者相比，乘坐公交车去火车站的受访者往往对自己的票价感到满意。此外，在受访者对火车票价的满意程度中，特别是在单程费用和等待时间方面，发现了明显的异质性。城际比较表明，城市的火车票价结构也会影响旅行者对其火车票价的感知满意度。这项研究的发现对政策制定者和运输经营者均具有重要意义，使他们能够了解旅行者的行为，并随后制定有效的过境政策。