Sweden lacks a powerful advocate who can represent the passengers in the public transport sector. In conjunction with the liberalization of the public transport market, the bus and rail services that have been opened up for competition and the allocation of responsibility within public transport has been divided into a several amount of actors. The liberalization has been positive for the passengers by a wider supply of transport services and also resulted in new service incentives. Within the commercial rail traffic market there is now a variety of tickets in different price ranges. The railway has also been vertical separated into operating traffic and infrastructure management, which have resulted in uncertain accountability at disruptions, for passengers such as the traffic operators. Since the Swedish Transport Administration Trafikverket nowadays procures the maintenance of the railway, the authority has been criticized losing control over their facility. The new Public Transport Act was introduced in 2010 and provides the local and regional public transport to be procured by the regional public transport authorities. They decide which traffic in the region that should be offered as obligated service that will be subsidised. The state has been reticent in interfering with the regional authorities but has simultaneously in several governmental investigations identified shortcomings in public transport, for example in the systems for ticketing and information. On voluntary bases the industry has been collaborated since a long time for developing such common platforms but the progress has been slow. However the actors introduced a common digital portal for information and ticketing in January 2015. In Denmark and in the United Kingdom there are governmental funded passenger organizations today that comprise operations in quality measurements of public transport and offering support to vulnerable passengers. The organizations are trying to achieve improvements in supply, or demand economic compensation for the passengers in case of traffic disruption. With the Government's recent appropriation direction to Trafikverket, the authority now may support non-profit organizations activities that harmonize with the national transport policy objectives, which mean that financial support could be disbursed to the non-profit passenger organization Resenärsforum, which is the leading passenger organization in Sweden today. An establishment of a new authority, to ensure the passengers' interests would require a more comprehensive governmental investigation. Rather, the state needs to take responsibility by establishing a national traffic service program that could clarify the division of responsibilities among existing authorities. That could also comprise commission for actors, as well public as private, for example in operation passenger information at traffic disruptions.

The air transport industry is at present subject to dramatic traffic growth, which is expected to triple in the next 20 years. The industry must attempt to meet this unavoidable challenge by somehow accommodating the increase in passenger flow. This thesis proposes to examine how automation devices may assist in meeting this challenge by facilitating passenger clearance. They would do so by improving the lengthy, formalistic, and overly-bureaucratic, immigration and customs procedures. A myriad of different legal issues are engaged by these initiatives. Although many of them are mentioned throughout this thesis, the core legal analysis focuses on the challenge to privacy triggered by these endeavours, and the conflicting interests of individuals and industry players. Finally, a proposal to eliminate, or at least to reduce, this conflict is recommended.

The Gauteng Province is introducing another railway system in South Africa. It is an 80-kilometre Mass Rapid Transit railway system. It is hoped to offer commuters an alternative public transport in addition to the current. The study uses a quantitative approach where a questionnaire was distributed. A snowball sample of 156 people around Gauteng was used to: - recognize the importance or value of outlining the possible impact on traffic during the redevelopment of the passenger railway systems; - examine the perception of the sample size with regard to the proposed Gautrain; - investigate whether respondents will use the train to work or to the airport; - find out what respondent’s expectations are on using the Gautrain; - whether respondents think there will be an economic benefit to them; - what respondents think about the time that they will save using the train; - what respondents think about their safety in and around the trains. According to respondents it is important for passengers to have efficient and reliable public transport. Respondents have confidence in the proposed Gautrain project. Most respondents agree that the community will benefit economically from the project and are positive that the Gautrain will improve the quality of life for the people in Gauteng. The majority of the respondents also agree that Gautrain will be a safe mode of transport to use. This study focuses on the mass redevelopment of the South African passenger transport system which seeks to improve the sector. It is therefore recommended that South African Transport be redeveloped by introducing alternative modes of transport like the proposed Gautrain. / Thesis (MBA)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Westville, 2009.

Airports are places where people have the potential to experience either satisfaction or frustration, and marketing and tourism scholars have argued that customer satisfaction is one of the primary goals of airports. However, few studies have systemically analyzed the service quality and efficiency of airports, or examined customer satisfaction with airport facilities. While airline passengers' expectations of airport service quality have been examined, there are few studies focusing on both their expectations and desires regarding airport services. Furthermore, to the best of our knowledge, no available studies have analyzed passengers' expectations and desires on the basis of the desires congruency model. This study attempted to define tourists' desires and expectations congruency as well as their satisfaction with their entire airport experiences. A total of 262 airline passengers in Incheon International Airport and Los Angeles International Airport participated in the study. Six hypotheses were tested with data collected from a survey of the airline passengers with the use of descriptive statistics and structural equation modeling. Most relationships among latent variables were found to be in accordance with previous studies. Furthermore, the results of the current study implied that the desires congruency model could be applied to the satisfaction formation of airline passengers. Practical recommendations are presented for the airport managers to enhance airport services.

This thesis is the result of a preliminary investigation into a niche market segment of the maritime tourism economy. Travel by working class freighter or cargo ship is not a new activity; however, the concept of freighter-based tourism (wherein participants travel by container ship in their free time solely for leisure purposes) has emerged relatively recently on the tourism spectrum. A major cause of its recent popularity and allied growth is the positive word of mouth promotion which has been generated by people who try freighter cruising and like it. As the number of prospective travellers increases, merchant shipping lines are seeing dramatic changes in the makeup of their passenger lists. In former years, the typical freighter 'passenger' spanned all ages and walks of life, as thousands of European immigrants traversed the Atlantic in search of a new life in the Americas. Today�s freighter 'travellers' are almost always over 50 years of age (up to a maximum age of 79) and are, for the most part, affluent with time and money to spare. Freighter travel nowadays involves the movement of people solely for the purpose of a unique and atypical travel experience. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the experiences of 22 participants engaged in recreational travel aboard working container vessels/cargo ships. The research questions driving this study were: What expectations and factors are understood by passengers to influence their decision to choose this particular mode of transport? What is the nature of the freighter experience, as passengers themselves understand it? What meanings do passengers attach to their experiences? How do the temporal dimensions of the passenger freighter experience (before, during, and after) connect with each other? This study employed a qualitative methodology to capture and portray as vividly as possible the participants� experiences and their attempts to make sense of those experiences. A phenomenological case study research design, set within a symbolic interactionist analytical framework, guided the study. The data consisted of in-depth online interviews and document analysis in the form of unsolicited travelogues/journey diaries. Through a prolonged and iterative process of data analysis using the transcendental phenomenological model provided by Moustakas (1994) and the operational refinements suggested by Schutz (1970) and Kvale (1995), the researcher documented the 'lived experience' of travel by cargo ship from the individual travellers� perspectives. Further, as a tool for describing, analysing, and interpreting the data, this study utilised the 'generic social processes scheme', a sociological method for the purposes of organising, analysing and interpreting qualitative data (Prus 1996). Within this research the themes were presented collectively, although they were systematically identified separately. The shared themes, meanings and patterns that shaped the informants� travel narratives suggested that moving out to the unfamiliar can be frightening, or it can be liberating. Participants had assessed and realistically accepted the potential hazards of a freighter voyage, working on the assumption that a willingness to roll with uncertainty, unexpected delays, and mishaps is mandatory. Associated with these themes were issues of adaptation; dealing with challenges, ambiguities and constraints, which, despite their potential to preclude further similar such involvements, shaped the overall freighter travel experience and did not affect participants� satisfaction with the experience. It was further shown that freighter travellers are highly individualised people characterised by their interest in unique 'life experiences' and defined by their search for the 'extraordinary'. Participants framed their behaviours as an extension of themselves; their self-designation as 'travellers' and not 'tourists' and their emphasis on independence and autonomy conferred a sense of individuality and personal determination. Like Cohen�s (1976) non-institutionalised, unstructured tourists, these 'travellers' valued risk, adventure and novelty. The idea of negotiation through ambiguity and occasional setbacks in their travels further challenges commonly held perceptions about constraints, which, too often is seems, have been construed as obstacles or barriers (Jackson 2000) to travel. With regard to the present study, constraints, while inherent to freighter travel, would not have represented a full or accurate picture of the travellers� experiences without a concomitant description of how they were negotiated; moreover, the process of their negotiation repositions these travellers as active participants (instead of inactive consumers) of the tourist experience. These travellers decided what they wanted to do, where they wanted to go, and ensured they could negotiate their constraints to do so. The conclusive findings of this study suggest that freighter travel was viewed largely as a positive, beneficial, and rewarding experience, offering opportunities for self-development, reflection, social interaction, and cross-cultural immersion and learning. While certain constraints and limitations were acknowledged and recognised, freighter travellers negotiated through them, and fully enjoyed participation in the travel experience.

Thesis (M.S. in Mechanical Engineering)--Tufts University, 2000. / Title from PDF title screen. "PB2008-110256." Includes bibliographical references (p. 80-82). Also available online.

Thesis (Ph.D)--Aerospace Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009. / Committee Chair: Mavris, Dimitri; Committee Member: Gallman, John; Committee Member: Lewe, Jung-Ho; Committee Member: Schrage, Daniel; Committee Member: Upton, Eric. Part of the SMARTech Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Collection.

Thesis (Ph.D)--Civil and Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009. / Committee Chair: Dr. Laurie A. Garrow; Committee Member: Dr. John D. Leonard; Committee Member: Dr. Mark Ferguson; Committee Member: Dr. Michael D. Meyer; Committee Member: Dr. Patrick S. McCarthy. Part of the SMARTech Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Collection.

Thesis (M. of Strategic Studies)--U.S. Army War College, 2006. / "15 MAR 2006"--Tech. report doc. page. Includes bibliographical references (p. 15-16) Full text document available on public STINET.

Thesis (M.S.)--Oregon State University, 2008. / Printout. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 97-98). Also available on the World Wide Web.