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Polls based on telephone interviews and/or questionnaires are notorious for just scratching the surface of an issue. Unless they are followed up with face to face interviews and/or focus groups, the results should be treated with skepticism. To determine the robustness of the poll one needs to know, amongst other things, the statistical construct that was used to determine the size of the sample, the tolerable error rate, the confidence level, the random number generator (s), the allowance for substitutions, and bias control. The Texas Poll gives some methodology data, i.e. the size of the population sampled, follow-up interviews, etc., but it does not include any information regarding the aforementioned sampling construct parameters. Moreover, it does not indicate how the follow-up interviews were conducted. Face to face follow-up interviews and/or focus groups are important because the interviewer(s) is able to read the body language of the respondents, which can contain some very important clues regarding the veracity of the responses. The results of a statistical sample should never be projected to the population as a whole. If 23 per cent of a sample population said that they favor A as opposed to C, the researches must say that they are 90 per cent confident, as an example, that 23 per cent of the population, within plus or minus X percent, favor A.  As soon as a researcher says that 23 per cent of the population favors a stated outcome, based on sampling, I know that he is wrong. Another key point with respect to sampling is the knowledge of the people being polled.  A population of civil engineers employed by the nation's railways or consulting firms with a large stake in railway consulting is likely to have a more informed opinion about the status of the nation's railway bridges than the general population. Assuming the population of Texas, taken as a whole, as an example, is knowledgeable about transportation is risky. At the end of the day, at least for a commercial enterprise, the only poll that counts is the market.  I know lots of people who say that they support more passenger trains.  But do they ride them? Nope! Would they ride them? Maybe! But I would not count on it.
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