The importance of speed and reliability in interurban services for business travelers - mode competition in the Lisboa/Porto corridor in Portugal

Lisbon and Porto are respectively the two major cities in Portugal, whose metropolitan areas together accrue for almost 45% of the country population. The distance between them is 300Km and both are located in the West Coast. Business travelling between the two cities is becoming increasingly frequent at various levels within companies and business units. The journey can be accomplished by 4 modes: car, train, coach and aeroplane. They all have their advantages and drawbacks at the current level of infrastructure development. This paper addresses the main issues related to the present pattern of mode choice in this corridor, based on very recent (2000 / 2001) revealed and stated preference data collected through direct surveys to travellers on their way, on all modes. The results of these surveys are presented. Mode competition will become an increasingly important issue in the future since motorway capacity is being enormously improved in this corridor, major rail investments are being carried out to improve travel time and reliability and air side supply is being adjusted. The authors believe that reliability and door-to-door overall journey time will become even more important issues in interurban business travel on this corridor. For the covering abstract see ITRD E115303.