image: Residents living along the Senboku Rapid Railway participated in a study to test the effect of subsidized train fares in exchange for increased walking steps.
Credit: Haruka Kato, Osaka Metropolitan University
The unforeseen consequences of modern lifestyles are coming to the forefront as healthcare costs spike in developed countries worldwide. One method to mitigate this is to encourage walking to promote good health. Therefore, initiatives to increase daily steps have been taking shape and becoming subjects for in-depth study.
Dr. Haruka Kato, a junior associate professor at Osaka Metropolitan University, with policy planners from the Sakai City Government investigated the effect of a train fare subsidy program on daily walking steps. A 7-week randomized controlled trial of 900 participants who used the HealthSmart-Senboku smartphone application was designed to investigate the steps of the following subgroups: prime-aged adults (20–49 years old), middle-aged adults (50–64 years old), and older adults (≥65 years old). This study subsidized the intervention group with either 2000 or 1000 points, which could be exchanged for digital train tickets worth 2000 JPY or 1000 JPY on the Senboku Rapid Railway.
The team found that the intervention group subsidized with 1000 points significantly increased daily walking steps by 711.43 steps/day for prime-aged adults. However, middle-aged and older adults in this group did not have significantly more steps than the control group. Similarly, the intervention group subsidized with 2000 points did not significantly change their daily walking steps across all age subgroups.
“These findings suggest that fare subsidy programs that encourage active travel require appropriate pricing,” said Dr. Kato, “Further, this provides important insights into the effectiveness of train fare subsidy programs for prime-aged adults.”
The findings were published in Research in Transportation Economics.
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Journal
Research in Transportation Economics
Method of Research
Data/statistical analysis
Subject of Research
Not applicable
Article Title
Effects of a train fare subsidy program on the daily walking steps of prime-aged adults: A randomized controlled trial of the Senboku Rapid Railway
Article Publication Date
25-Sep-2025
COI Statement
The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: Haruka Kato reports financial support was provided by Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. If there are other authors, they declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.