Measuring dissatisfaction with public transport service

Abstract

Measuring service importance, perceived performance and satisfaction with public transport is critical to identify priorities areas for service improvements. A dissatisfaction measure, witch combines measures of importance and performance labeled user disgruntlement (1), was used to ascertain the critical aspects of the service. The analysis was applied on different transport modes used for work and school trips and on two population sub-groups (e.g., women and men). Because attitudes as well as perceptions are important factors, insights into six previously extracted market segments using attitudes towards travel were also analyzed. The results showed that women as well as non-users of public transport seem to be more dissatisfied with service quality attributes. Priority areas of improvement are on aspects such as transit cost, waiting time, on-time performance and frequency. With lower rankings of importance but also of great concern are aspects related to the level of crowding, having seats available, stops comfort and interchange.