Passengers’ perception of COVID-19 countermeasures on urban railway in Bangkok

ABSTRACT

Rail transit systems around the world have been suffering from heavily reduced ridership due to reduced capacity for social distancing and passengers’ concern over the risk of COVID-19 infection. Various countermeasures were implemented to reduce the COVID-19 risk so that passengers felt safe to travel on rail. The objective of this study is to evaluate COVID-19 countermeasures of Bangkok’s urban rail from passengers’ viewpoints. The background of the COVID-19 pandemic in Thailand and the rail countermeasures implemented in Bangkok are summarized. The railway passengers interview survey was conducted at the stations during the second wave of the pandemic. Exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis on the regular commuting passengers revealed that the rail’s countermeasures are perceived as two types. Alternate seat blocking, 1-m distancing rule, limited station, and train capacity were regarded as distancing-related measures while temperature screening, face mask enforcement, and hand sanitization were regarded as public health measures. Although those measures might cause inconvenience, they were found to be perceived as nearly significant to each other. The findings recommend to maintain the passenger’s cooperative manners such as face mask wearing, hand sanitizing, as they will be efficient countermeasure in a situation when train is congested and social distancing is difficult. To reduce the congestion, that is, high-risk COVID-19, spreading of demand out of the peak hours by teleworking or flexible working hours will greatly help. Moreover, the COVID-19 safe access and egress modes, including walk and nonmotorized transport in TOD urban setting, must be secured to ensure the entire trip is safe.