How are comfort and safety perceived by inland waterway transport passengers? Luis Márquez a,n , Víctor Cantillo b , Julián Arellana b a Universidad Pedagógica y Tecnológica de Colombia, Colombia b Universidad del Norte, Colombia article info Keywords: Latent variables Safety Comfort Discrete choice models Inland waterways transport abstract The geographical conditions of Colombia limit connectivity among regions, making communication between different areas of the country difficult. Although Colombia has a major waterway system that could facilitate regional communication, much of the territory is functionally disjointed, which is why the government and private operators seek to promote inland waterway transport and improve their safety. In the field of provision of waterway transport in inaccessible regions, this paper analyses the influence that perceptions of safety and comfort of the service have on the choice of river transport by passengers using hybrid choice models incorporating latent variables. The results of the hybrid choice model indicate that older workers attach less importance to the hull condition and safety; in turn, comfort is more valued by young workers and by those users who have a higher educational level. Variables such as the hull condition and how the boat is operated have a significant effect on the user perception of safety. Similarly, the results suggest that expanding the space between seats and developing strategies to improve the behaviour of other users significantly increase the perceived comfort of the service provided. & 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Colombia is comprised of three main topographical areas: the Andean mountain system, which is composed of three mountain ranges and different inter-Andean valleys, the low lands and isolated mountain ranges as the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and Macarena. This geographical situation limits the connectivity among regions, preventing communication among them (Roelofs, 2013). Although the country has a major river system that could facilitate regional communication, much of the territory is func- tionally disjointed, a condition that along with the low population density hinders connectivity, service delivery, infrastructure provi- sion and competitiveness of economic activities. Colombia's government is aware of this situation and it has made some strategic guidelines that aim to enable the country by improving the existing highway network, expanding ways of development and promoting multimodal (air and river) transport (DNP, 2010). The promotion of waterway freight would reduce the external costs of transport (Márquez and Cantillo, 2013) and develop mining and agro-industrial activities (Roelofs, 2013), whereas policies promoting waterway passenger transport would improve accessibility in regions where the river is the only available path between zones (Berrío and Cantillo, 2012). In addition to the formulation of policies that seek to promote inland waterway transport, the Colombian government also aims to strengthen the security and safety in the environment of the river corridor, and the use of more efficient technologies in terms of emissions (DNP, 2010). Although comfort is not a priority for the national government, from the perspective of users, it is a relevant attribute that can be improved in the context of the provision of inland waterway passenger transport. In Colombia, as experimen- ted in the EU countries, and specifically in Italy (Eboli and Mazzulla, 2012), there is lack of regulations and there is needed to arrange univocal procedures for service quality measurement, where safety has national legislation and control by the state. Transport safety is concerned with the protection of life and goods through regulation, supervision and technology devel- opment of all forms of transportation. Previous research has found that, in a preliminary evaluation, passenger perception about quality of service is basically influenced by trip frequency. However, after being asked to evaluate all the attributes, other attributes such as safety become as important as frequency (de Oña et al., 2012). In bus-based public transport services, the factors influencing customer satisfaction that might be common to other modes of Contents lists available at ScienceDirect journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/tranpol Transport Policy http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tranpol.2014.07.006 0967-070X/& 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. n Corresponding author. þ573166276714. E-mail addresses: Luis.marquez@uptc.edu.co, lgmarquezd@gmail.com (L. Márquez), vcantill@uninorte.edu.co (V. Cantillo), jarellana@uninorte.edu.co (J. Arellana). Transport Policy 36 (2014) 46–52