Identifying the Factors Affecting on Service Quality & Passenger Satisfaction in Commuter Train Services

This paper addresses identifying the factors affecting the service quality in commuter trains services and passenger satisfaction. To this end, the Service Quality Management Framework (SERVQUAL model) with five dimensions of service quality including reliability, assurance, tangibility, empathy, and responsiveness, have been used to assess the passengers' needs. In this study, the criteria of the model were chosen from the KANO Customer Satisfaction Model, and a combination of KANO and SERVQUAL models has been used for analyzing the data. Needs assessment of passengers in both stages of the survey was conducted through descriptive research and data were collected by the survey method. A survey is developed and is used to measure the required information and the SERVQUAL and KANO are used in the analysis. In this survey 200 commuter train passengers participated to complete the questionnaires. The results show in the Empathy dimension, using the travel pass for passengers is more important than the other factors; in the Tangibility dimension, the presence of modern equipment inside the train has the greatest impact on increasing the passengers’ satisfaction. In the Assurance dimension, the staff’s willingness to help passengers, especially passengers who are disabled or handicapped, as well as the employees’ willingness to resolve the issues causing delay is also among the factors that enhance the passengers' satisfaction. On-time railway service is the most important factor in the Reliability dimension.