Heterogeneity in Personal Attitudes and Preferences for High-Speed Metropolitan Railway Service by Travel Contexts in South Korea: A Hybrid Choice Modeling Approach

High-speed metropolitan railway services have been introduced in several mega cities to solve traffic problems stemming from urban sprawl. The success of such huge public transportation projects depends on how to design them more attractively based on profound insight into people’s preferences in the context of travel mode choice. Although many previous studies have investigated factors affecting the preferences for high-speed metropolitan railway services in general, possible heterogeneity in the preferences by different travel contexts tends to be largely ignored. In addition, the effects of personal latent attitudes toward travel mode choice have not been investigated thoroughly in the context of using high-speed metropolitan railway services. Incorporating such latent attitudes in mode choice analysis is helpful for better understanding the motivation of choosing a travel mode. The present study investigates people’s preferences for high-speed metropolitan railway service and their heterogeneity by different travel contexts using stated choice data. In addition, the hybrid choice modeling approach is employed to identify simultaneously the relevant latent attitudes and their effects on the preference for high-speed metropolitan railway service. The data collection was conducted in 2021, with respect to the great train express (GTX) project of the Seoul metropolitan area. The estimation results suggest that the latent attitudes about risk-minimizing and comfort-seeking have different effects on people’s intention to use GTX according to travel contexts. Moreover, the difference in sensitivity to the attributes of GTX exists depending on the travel contexts.