Train time - what do you do with it?
Surfing the web, reading, listening to music and using social media are the most popular activities that people undertake when travelling by train according to a recent survey conducted by Translink as part of the company’s Try the Train campaign.
Some of the key activities that passengers get up to; Almost 60% of passengers take advantage of Wifi services onboard trains; 28% of passengers read on the train; 19% of passengers listen to music on the trai; 14% of passengers use social media on the train; Only 8% of train travellers admitted to sleeping on their commute while the same number said they spent the time working, studying or talking to friends.
Regular train commuter Mark Hewitt said “You can make use of your time when you travel by train in a way that you can’t when travelling to and from work by car. I have spent many valuable hours reading and catching up with work on the train which in turn frees up my time at home. Add that to the convenience and the pure joy of not sitting in traffic and train travel makes perfect sense.”
The research showed that while convenience (29%) and avoiding traffic congestion (19%) were the most popular reasons cited for choosing rail travel, other factors such as reduced stress (18%) also influenced their choice of transport. In terms of how commuters view the overall service they receive from NI Railways 29% said it was excellent, 29% very good and 16% good.
“We can see that convenience is cited as the most common reason for travelling by train but the research also shows that taking the train is less stressful than private car journeys and in an increasingly fast-paced environment that is something to be welcomed” said Louise Scott, Translink Brand Manager.
“It’s gratifying to see that 94% of passengers who participated in the research deemed the service they received on NI Railways as good or better.
“We also have just under 60% of passengers taking advantage of our free WiFi services on board, hopefully we can see this figure increasing, especially when you consider the vast majority of people can access the internet on their mobile phones.
“I’d like to encourage people to give the train a try and for those people who are already doing so to check and see if there are more competitive fares they could be taking advantage of, concluded Louise.
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Weather for Ballymena
Tuesday 21 May 2013
Today
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Temperature: 7 C to 14 C
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