Sampling

The Population considered for the study was the passengers who use rail services as the means of transport in London. As the study is based on the privatisation of the London Overground and its impact on passengers the railway passengers of London have to be considered because it provides maximum information required for the study. The research study has employed convenience non-probability sampling technique for choosing the

samples required for the research study. According to the opinion of Palinkas et al. (2015), sampling is the technique used for gathering information from the sources which are required for the success of the accomplishment of the research study. Sampling technique is classified into probability and non-probability sampling techniques (Acharya et al., 2013). According to Bryman and Bell (2015), the sampling process helps the researcher to collect valid information from a group of samples representing the population and moreover sampling process results in the accurate data collection on the topic. The sampling size is a significant

aspect, and in order to ensure quality data, the size should be neither small nor large. From the observation of Palinkas et al. (2015) sampling is observed as the subset of a chosen population and sampling process in a research methodology will fortify the quality of data collected. Sampling is performed because keeping the population because of the difficulties in researching every element in the population. Acharya et al. (2013) pointed out that the chance of errors in the result is high if the selected samples do not reflect the population. The unrepresentativeness of the population mainly occurs when the sampling bias occurs. The biasing occurs if the units are considered from the inclusion list, and the data collected from the units in inclusion will result in invalid data collection. The sampling process is simply mentioned as the study on the properties of selected participants from a large population. The cost-effectiveness of observing a group or population using the sampling technique is one of the significant advantages of using the sampling process. The chances of the error

occurring in the result are higher while minoring the population. From the opinion of Ach_arya et al. (2013) a unit is considered as the minor portion of a population, and the sampling process is less time-consuming. The limitation of considering large population for generalising the information is the main factor that directs the researcher to undertake a sampling process. For some specific research area, the population considered will be quite larger which creates difficulties for the researcher to consider the opinions and perspective of each unit.

The current investigation used non-probability sampling technique as the sample size is selected irrespective of the entire population. Since the study is to analyse the effect of British railway privatisation on the passenger satisfaction in the context of London Overground, passengers' responses were considered as the most relevant data. By utilising convenience non-probability sampling method, the researcher was able to sample the number of passengers of London railways. Hence it was identified convenience non-probability sampling is the most appropriate sampling method for the present investigation. The

convenience sampling technique assisted the researcher in selecting the respondents for the survey as from the accessibility ease of the investigator as well as the passengers of London Overground.

The proximity of the sample is identified as one of the significant benefits of convenience

sampling method. According to Palinkas et al., (2015) convenience sampling is identified as the fast and inexpensive method performed for gathering evidence for studying the topic in depth within the limited resources. In the convenience sampling, the participants are asked to volunteer, and this provides close sample proximity. The samples are selected randomly to represent the population, and convivence method is the precise and accurate method used for identifying the representatives from a population. Moreover, this method can be carried out within the limited sources available for this research.

Determining the sample size is very critical, and when choosing a lower sample size, it will be difficult to obtain an appropriate result (Roy, 2015). The passengers of London railways were considered as the population in the present investigation. As surveying a massive number of passengers were not practically possible, the investigator selects a sample size of 150 passengers and 50 staff for completing the survey strategy. The researcher planned to survey 150 passengers and 50 staff of London railways for determining the passenger satisfaction after the British railway privatisation. The survey questionnaire was distributed to the 150 passengers of the London railways, and the gained survey outcomes will append to the results of this research study. Accumulating proper data from the sample size of 200 would also facilitate the investigator in conducting a detailed and efficient survey of the research problem. Though, the raising sample size generated issues owing to the time and cost constraints. Furthermore, the sample size that was utilised to determine the correlation between British railway privatisation and passenger satisfaction was 200 passengers/staff of London Overground railways.

However, the researcher could not obtain 150 passengers as the sample size was too large. Since some of the passengers were not shown much interest to participate in the survey and some were busy, the researcher could not gather data from the intended sample size. Though 150 passengers have participated in the survey and they filled out the questionnaire with the stipulated time.