ABSTRACT

Pakistan has a very skewed modal transportation, with approx. 96% of freight moved by road. The core premise of the study is that successful policymaking involves a thorough understanding of how the policy’s target(s) would respond to it. Transportation systems, especially freight, are typically complicated, heterogeneous, and poorly understood by policymakers. Implementing policies affecting such a complex system can result in ineffective attempts and frequently unanticipated consequences. The most effective strategy to avoid these results is to ensure that behavior research underpins freight policy. This study examines the factor influencing mode choice decision of the firm and identify reform areas for railways freight business. For this purpose, 30 interviews were conducted from different freight shippers based in Rawalpindi and Islamabad. The result shows that reliability, transportation cost, ease of access, probability of loss, damages, origin and destination are the factors that influence mode choice decision of the firms. By applying probit model the estimates shows that the magnitude of reliability is 1.94 and Cost is -2.23 for the mode choice of the firm. Moreover, thematic analysis shows that for railway to regain freight modal share investment, make railway a customer-oriented organization and technology were identified by the respondents. The coordination between different stakeholders, accessibility, infrastructure upgradation, digitalization and technology innovation are pivotal for a balance transport model