Abstract
Most of intercity rapid trains in Japan supply different seat classes, (1) reserved seat, where passengers are completely guaranteed to have seating during the trip (2) nonreserved seat, where passengers can sit anywhere if it is available. Because the assignment of these classes is usually fixed, the inefficient utilization is caused, for example, non-reserved seats are highly congested while there are still vacant seats in the reserved seat class. The study focuses on the seat class choice behavior on intercity train passengers for developing the flexible seat class assignment approach. Some analyses conducted in the study suggest that the choice behavior is influenced by some personal preference factors, such as importance on “complete seating during the trip” and so on. The disaggregate seat class choice models are also calibrated, which demonstrate that the consideration of heterogeneity of passengers' preference for seat classes is efficient to describe the behavior.
