Value of comfort under crowding in commuter rail: Evidence from Tokyo's Green Cars

This study estimates a revealed-preference measure of commuters’ value of comfort (VOC) using data from JR East lines in the Tokyo metropolitan area, where ordinary cars and premium Green Cars differ only in onboard comfort. The analysis uses microdata from three waves of the Public Transport Survey for Metropolitan Areas (2005–2015). A sharp regression discontinuity design identifies the price effect at the 51 km fare-calculation threshold, where the Green Car surcharge increases discretely under a two-tier pricing rule. Employers in Japan typically cover the base fare through commuter-pass allowances but exclude Green Car charges; thus, commuters pay the Green Car surcharge out of pocket, which can be used to identify VOC. Green Car use shows a statistically significant downward discontinuity during the weekday morning commute, with an elasticity above one, but no statistically significant discontinuity during the evening commute. The morning response is stronger among commuters in the higher-income-proxy group but small and statistically insignificant in the lower group. The income heterogeneity in the estimated responses suggests that, although this setting differs from a uniform peak surcharge on the base fare, the distributional incidence of an out-of-pocket peak-period surcharge may vary across income groups.