Almost half of British people find a better option for their journey by comparing all transportation modes

Train? Coach? Ride share? Plane? In a highly competitive sector where the development of low cost transport options enables travellers to have more and more choices, the best option for UK domestic and European journeys is not always the one that British people initially thought about. A recent study made Gopili shows that 43% of Britons who initially search for a ticket to travel on a specific transportation mode, finally choose another mode of transport when they have the opportunity to compare all of the options. The study also shows some measurable reasons explaining the selection of another mode of transport.

Travelling by coach is on average 2.5 times cheaper than by train but takes longer

When searching for options to travel across UK and Europe, the research shows that coach tickets are on average 1.5 times cheaper than ride share lifts, 2.5 times cheaper than train tickets and 6.5 times cheaper than flights. In terms of journey duration, while flying is the best option to get faster to your destination, the study reveals that on average, travelling by train will take you twice less time than travelling by coach.

While finding cheaper or faster transport options could have a significant impact on the selection of a transportation mode, the regularity of services also differs from one transportation mode to another. There is on average twice more services per day by train for the same journey than by bus or plane.

Comparing modes of transport next to one another to identify the best option

Whether searching for last minute tickets for October half-term or for tickets in advance for Christmas, comparing transportation modes is a proven approach to find better options. The innovative travel search engine Gopili.co.uk offers an intuitive way to compare in one search all transportation modes for your journey.

Yann Raoul, CEO of Gopili commented “Each individual has different expectations when choosing the most suitable mode of transport for the same journey, whether it is for business or leisure. Providing journey times and prices of all transportation modes on one single page makes the research easy and transparent, enabling users to identify quickly the best option.”

About the study

Data were collected considering the choices of 130.000 users of the Gopili website. Statistics shows the transportation mode selected by the user but does not guarantee that he travelled using the same one. Simulations for journey prices, departures and times were carried out on 20 journeys across UK & Europe on the 27th of October on Gopili.

The study has been made by Gopili, a multimodal travel search engine which makes the research of a ticket easy and relevant for travellers by providing journey times and prices in real-time on all transportation modes: train, coach, ride share and plane. Gopili is the European brand of the French startup KelBillet.

Featured ride share image credits: Pink Sherbet Photography . All Flickr images used in this article are licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.