On their own these results provide some important information about travel habits and the visibility of rail improvements to citizens. It is probable that the researcher will want to explore results further to understand the data in more depth.

Gender * Have respondents heard about plans to improve their local railway? Crosstabulation
YesNoNot sureTotal
Female2438870
Male3824769
Total626215139


Gender * Source of information for local plans Crosstabulation
At the stationPressInternetFlyerOtherTotal
Female51624633
Male918132749
Total14341561382


The above tables show an analysis which suggests that:

• female respondents are more likely not to have heard about plans for rail improvements in their locality than male
• and there is also a suggestion that they would have heard so through the press
• males were more likely to also receive information at stations and on the internet.

Age range * Have respondents heard about plans to improve their local railway? Crosstabulation
YesNoNot sureTotal
44 or under2128655
45 or over3933880
Total606114135


Age range * Source of information for local plans Crosstabulation
At the stationPressInternetFlyerOtherTotal
44 or under41193532
45 or over102263647
Total14331561179


Splitting respondents by age also shows differences in whether they have heard of railway plans and where. Further analysis can also be undertaken to understand whether relationships such as these are significant. There isn’t scope here to detail statistical analysis, but using packages such as SPSS and related guides such as Andy Field’s ‘Discovering Statistics using IBM SPSS Statistics’ , it is possible to learn how to test your findings for significance.