The effect of mobile information services on commuter trains

In this study we verified what kind of mobile information services passengers need on board through empirical research on commercial commuting trains. We provided rail information services as well as marketing tools such as news, shop information, advertisements and coupons for smartphones. A content server and Wi-Fi access points were newly installed on trains with the server connecting to an existing onboard train information management system. Line-related and location-based information can be provided to smartphones on board by using the server that obtains various data from the train management system or from on-ground networks. Content server access logs were then obtained and analyzed, and several questionnaire surveys were conducted in order to evaluate these information services during the test period. This study revealed that almost 90 percent of passengers who answered questionnaires would use these mobile information services if the services were actually introduced, and that satisfaction in railway information content was higher than that of marketing contents. These contents can be divided into the following types according to different point of view, location-based contents and non-location-based contents. We also found that the satisfaction in location-based information content affected overall intent to use these mobile information services.