Development of structural models of ride comfort for high speed rail passengers using a quantification method

抄録

This study aims to develop a model of ride comfort for high speed rail launched out in Korea (KTX: The Korea Train eXpress). To evaluate and to quantify the impacts and scores of each qualitative factor on the overall ride comfort, Structural Equation Model (SEM) was used. In order to construct a comprehensive ride comfort model, both the qualitative and quantitative factors were included. The influences of qualitative factors of passengers such as fatigue and medical symptoms were considered in addition to the factor of the interior, seat, and tunneling effect. Analysis results showed that the SEM model had a high level of fitness (GFI=0.928), to assure statistically acceptable reliability and validity. Among the candidate factors from conceptual model, the seat, fatigue, interior related factors showed significant effects to ride comfort of KTX. The ride comfort was most affected by the seat factors (including forward and backward seat) which could drastically increase ride comfort of passengers among all others. The results could be useful for the improvement of ride comfort in next generation KTX.