Investigating the Athens - Thessaloniki Door-to-Door Intercity Transport Connection by All Means from the Students' Point of View

摘要

In Greece, Athens and Thessaloniki are the two largest cities with the largest universities and, therefore, with a large student population. Students are one of the groups with the higher, if not the highest, use of public transport, as most of them do not own private cars and need to travel long distances both in the city they study and to and from the city they came. Moreover, it is still very common for students of Athens and Thessaloniki to travel to and from Thes-saloniki and Athens, respectively, both for recreational reasons and because the parents and friends of many of them live in the other city. This paper presents a general overview of the different transport means available in Athens and Thessaloniki and the ways the two cities are interconnected, followed by a comparison of the several ways the intercity trips can be realized. Emphasis is placed on how students choose to travel, which are their criteria, and how much time they make from the moment they leave their home to the point of arrival to the other city (door-to-door). For this reason, a questionnaire survey was conducted among students of Athens and Thessaloniki. The questionnaire was answered by 155 students from Athens and 166 students from Thessaloniki. A summary table presents the cost, time, number of means, and comfort for all the possible door-to-door intercity routes. As expected, considering the current financial conjuncture, the most important factor was found to be the cost of the trip.