Abstract
Most passengers take fixed routes commuting to a place of work or to school every day. In Japan, nevertheless, they are often confused when train operations are disrupted due to some accidents, even with these daily itineraries. Because in urban areas there are a large variety of different types of trains such as local, rapid, express, etc. which are operated on a certain single line and stop different stations, the arrival sequence of these trains can become disrupted even with a small delay. For this reason, passengers have to gather relevant information in order to decide which train they should to get on. Today, however, the railway operators provide limited information regarding operation conditions of each train. In this paper, therefore, the questionnaire survey carried out targeted daily commuters in urban areas, for whom train operations were most likely to be disrupted and for whom the need for more information at such times is the greatest, in order to seek an appropriate method of providing information that is desirable for both operators and passengers. The survey was conducted assuming that the schedule disruptions were slight enough to not need traffic operation rescheduling on a virtual rail route. The respondents answered about their own decision making for train choice and their reasons for choosing them when they obtain the detailed information about the situations of individual trains. It shows that passengers' decision make and behavior for train choice deeply depends on a combination of the items of provided information, which can suggests that how railway companies provide information to passengers for appropriate train choice.
