Exploring factors influencing Commuters’ satisfaction towards regional transit System: A case of National Capital Region, India

Abstract

Assessing the service quality of transit systems has gained massive importance in recent years. However, commuters’ satisfaction plays a significant role in determining the service quality of a transit system. This study attempts to examine the relationship of different attributes on the overall satisfaction of commuters using existing regional transit systems operated between Delhi, Gurugram, and Rewari districts of the National Capital Region (NCR), India. A questionnaire-based survey captured the satisfaction of 781 respondents over 27 attributes using a five-point Likert-type scale. The Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) is used to determine the relationship of the latent factors with the overall satisfaction of regional transit systems and is further used to identify the ones that are more important and have a strong effect on overall satisfaction using the importance performance map analysis (IPMA).

The result showcases that information at the station is the most satisfactory attribute, while commuters are least satisfied with the cleanliness of toilets at the station. Three latent factors are developed in the model, out of which, the latent factor Vehicle has a direct effect on the overall satisfaction at 0.01 significance level, while it is not the same in the case of the remaining two. The Vehicle latent factor is found to be a full mediator for the Station latent factor, while a partial mediator for the Service latent factor to influence the overall satisfaction of commuters using regional transit systems. Finally, the IPMA results indicate that the performance of overall satisfaction can be increased by prioritizing improvement in the performance of station related attributes, followed by those related to the vehicle. The relationship of different attributes and overall satisfaction derived in this study will assist the regional transit authorities in improving commuters’ overall satisfaction.