Operational Proposal for qualitative research

Background Quick facts about Versova-Andheri-Ghatkopar corridor project: First Public Private Partnership in BOOT framework Vital Infrastructure Project Status by State Govt. Provides East to West connectivity Designed to carry about 6 lakhs commuters per day initially Reduces travel time from existing 90 minutes to about 21 minutes Reduces vehicular traffic substantially along the corridor World class features and facilities World class quality standards Highest levels of safety Travel made easy for physically challenged The resulting intelligence led to some site enhancements. However, a short online survey cannot explore motivations, perceptions, or impact on behavior of travelers wanting to switch to developing metro rail services. We need to identify a methodology for gathering rich qualitative intelligence and using it to improve offering which shall directly affect our determination of fare price( a prime motive for conducting this survey). Qualitative research is needed to: explore/clarify issues raised by the survey, where the findings indicate a need for change, but are not sufficiently detailed to guide what this should be and interpreting the respondents willingness to switch to metro services at a particular fare rate. understand the rationale of our users and their inconveniences faced currently in their preferred mode of our transport. appreciate the needs and interests of our users, what pleases and frustrates them and how they think we can do better test some of the quick wins implemented following the survey. The bulletins above are ideally suited to clarifying perceptions, understanding experience, and generating new ideas. For this reason, answering a qualitative analysis based questionnaire will be provided to users at multiple locations lying through the VAG corridor along with certain in-depth analysis with a time span of 3-4 mins each, this following have been recommended as the methodology to inform our work to review and set the fixation of fare price along the corridor..

Objectives The current operational plan objectives suggest a number of potential aims for the successive qualitative research survey to be conducted: The objective of this operation is to analyze and project the basis on how a certain amount of fare is decided on specified mode of mass transportation system and the analysis of such factors leading to that decision. This will be done through the development of a modeling framework and the understanding of transportation economics that can capture peoples responsiveness to fixation of fare structure with the following sub-objectives. We will specifically address the following questions: 1. What are the factors that lead to determination of fare charge on a specific route? 2. What is the weightage of these factors in determination of fare price in public transport? And how important are fares in determining these decisions? Answering these questions will provide a better understanding of what fare charges needed to be made in order to make more effective use of the existing public transport network and infrastructure. Basically the above question can be applied on how the controlling agency or organization determines the prices of fare to be applied within the MTS (Mass transportation system). A need has arisen to understand not only why people use public transport as opposed to other modes but also how they use public transport, in terms of their ticket, mode, and timeofday choices. To that end, fares become a n increasingly important policy tool that can trigger certain behavioral changes among riders. The mass transport system can be primarily segregated into these five categories especially in metro cities: Public transportation buses Metro rail Sub urban railways Tram( Kolkata) Now on progressing further in this paper, we shall come across the various economic modeling techniques that have been implemented in order to determine the pricing strategy involved in order to set the fare of mass transportation services with respect to various examples from overseas.

Participant profile In Ghatkopar the middle class suburb consists of predominantly residential and retail establishments,35% of respondents are expected to be from service class , 25% members of the public are belonging to business segment, and the remaining 40% represented a mix of other users e.g. students, senior citizens, unemployed etc. The proposal is to hold a precise qualitative questionnaire to explore the psyche behind their rationale of their preferred mode of transportation and what would be the prime factors upon their switch rate to metro services. It is also proposed to organize certain in-depth analysis with an interested respondent who may participate, help develop the discussion guide and take part in the group discussion.

Format and logistics Typically, the questionnaire includes 11 objective based questions detailed to probe and reciprocate the prime objective of their willingness to comfortably spend for metro services. Survey will be held in selected areas of VAG Corridor specifically versova andheri, ghatkopar, marol, airport road. The questionnaire will be available on the scenario to the users and answers shall be recorded in a common spreadsheet. The survey team would be consisting of two candidates and shall be targeting 500 respondents across the VAG corridor. Respondent answers should be recorded to ensure all data is captured without bias. We propose the accurate filling up of spreadsheet by the moderator. The proposed format of the questionnaire is as follows: warm up; cover ground in the discussion guide; assisting the respondent in certain questions if required. Survey Initialization Plan: The questionnaire will be hosted by the team in different places such as office spaces, bus stops, ticket counters at railway station, coffee shops and fast food joints at evening hours and people in taxi stands and also the residential areas in versova lying in VAG Corridor and probably targeting two-wheeler respondents in suitable places.

 The time hours of survey will be evenly spread across the morning hours representing service, student and business class movement (9am to 12pm) , also during after lunch hours ( 3pm till 5pm) and the peak travelling hours ( 5pm till 8pm) and possibly trying to cover night travelers (8pm till 10pm). The discussion evolved from questionnaire will look at a number of issues such as: o How would users describe their current mode of public transport? o What frustrates users where is the current mode of transport letting them down? o How do we compare metro with other modes of transport with repect to factors given in questionnaire? There may be an opportunity to use this survey to explore wider views about how much is the current expense of users on their mode of transport, is it efficient in all terms or not. We are also interested in looking the time of travel and how important is the sensitivity of any particular factor which shall influence our decisions on fare fixation.

CONCLUSION: To identify some of the factors that influence peoples travel decisions and pre- vent commuters from using alternative modes of transportation, the presented research applies an questionnaire and in-depth survey. As with qualitative research in general, the research provides representative data. For the purpose, the results will be used to define target groups for marketing public transportation and to determine the type of actions that would increase an employees likelihood to switch. Personal and situational constraints significantly influence travel behavior, and so mode choice depends not only on origin, destination, and sociodemographic characteristics, but also on individuals motives, interests, and intentions. To better identify peoples motivations and perceptions regarding transportation and land use, all of the possible influential factors for mode selection should be studied, including personal and external constraints, attitudes toward the different modes of transportation. Fares decisions are based upon a very diverse range of factors which can be traffic density, fare price setting, reliability, time, safety, flexibility, comfort & cleanliness are the deciding factors Essential to acceptance will be financial frameworks that shall tackle the potentially large changes in financial performance of each mode or operator and which deal with the concerns of private sector profit maximizing operator.