Passenger Travel Path Selection Based on the Characteristic Value of Transport Services

In this paper, we establish a generalized cost function for passenger travel based on the characteristic value of transportation services, and we select high-speed rail, air, and air–rail as the selection branches in order to build a passenger travel decision-making model combined with a logit model to analyze the preference for passenger travel choices. The results show that, within the transportation network of the Chengdu–Chongqing economic circle, passengers are more likely to take the high-speed rail option directly, followed by air–rail and air options, and these results are concentrated within a transportation distance range of less than 1000 km, 1000–1200 km, and more than 1200 km, respectively. Among them, the OD travel routes comprised Chengdu and Yibin as the transit nodes of the combined travel account for more than 50%, which exhibits the high strategic development potential of air–rail combined transportation. Ridge regression analyses show that ticket price, quickness, convenience, and comfort influence the probability related to travelers’ travel choice at varying degrees. The elasticity values of the fatigue recovery time, travel time, and time value per capita for high-speed rail are much greater than the other two travel modes, indicating that these three factors have a high impact on the travel choice behavior of high-speed rail.