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The aim of this article is to identify the factors affecting user perception of transfers in order to reduce the penalty associated with transfers. Policy makers can thus concentrate on the most relevant factors to achieve a more effective investment of public funds. We carried out an extensive review of the literature and identified a total of 45 factors. A qualitative study was then conducted in two Spanish cities, Vitoria and Madrid, consisting of various focus groups stratified by age. The results indicate that a combination of factors influence the perception of transfers. Time spent during transfers, both walking and waiting, is the main penalty associated with transfers. However, the provision of real-time passenger information helps reduce the perceived waiting time. Differences were found between cities and age groups. Two new factors were identified, mainly in Madrid: mental effort and activity disruption. We, therefore, advise policy makers to concentrate their efforts on providing real-time information to passengers, improving the frequency and reliability of services, and designing transfer areas to ensure continuity between transport modes and between information and communication systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The disutility of transfers in multimodal public transport goes beyond the additional walking and waiting times. Although the magnitude of this pure transfer penalty has been proven to be an essential element in the structural design of public transport lines, the scarce available research reveals a wide range of values. The aim of this paper is to develop and apply a framework to estimate the value perceived and assigned by commuters to this penalty. This framework includes all the other elements considered by users in the case of a trip involving (potential) transfers, in order to obtain the impact of each one. The framework is based on the discrete choices paradigm and applied to data collected in Madrid, Spain. The results show that the pure transfer penalty is comparable to a 15.2–17.7 equivalent increase in in-vehicle minutes; i.e. longer trips may be preferred to faster alternatives with transfers, even if the additional walking and waiting times are zero. As well as the pure transfer penalty, the model also captures the effects of habit, crowding, walking, waiting and in-vehicle times, information, and the additional effect of intermodality on transfers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The perception of transfers in urban transit trips plays a key role when choosing an appropriate design of a public transport network for a given city, as there are lines structures that involve significantly more connections than others, e.g. hub-and-spoke or feeder-trunk. Besides additional walking and waiting, a transfer involves the interruption of a trip, whose value, called pure transfer penalty (PTP), has not received the same attention from a behavioral viewpoint. In this paper we contribute to find whether there is an equivalency with as general validity as walking and waiting regarding in-vehicle time. We do this by reviewing available evidence – all in relatively large cities - and by estimating the PTP in the very small Spanish city of Vitoria adapting a generic methodology that has been applied only to a metropolitan area (Madrid). Although Vitoria is much smaller in size, with fewer shares of multimodal trips, harder climate and shorter trip distances, results reveal that PTP is perceived as an increase of 18.4 Equivalent-In-Vehicle-Minutes (EIVM) when it does not rain or snow, very close to the values obtained in Madrid (15.2–17.7) and other reported meta-analysis (17.6). This figure drops when bad weather happens, which yields a weighted annual average of 13.9 EIVM. We propose 13–18 as a reasonable equivalence range for planning purposes. • The Pure Transfer Penalty (PTP) – the value of trip disruption – has received comparatively less attention than waiting and walking, although it is a key parameter for transit design. • The literature shows evidence of PTP values that have been obtained in relatively large cities. • The small Spanish city of Vitoria is studied obtaining a weighted average of 14 Equivalent in Vehicle Minutes (EIVM) considering weather conditions. • A range between 13 and 18 EIVM for the PTP is proposed for planning purposes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]