Assessing commuters’ perceptions towards improvement of intermediate public transport as access modes to metro stations

The study considers the perception of Metro commuters to investigate the priority areas of interventions for improving the service quality of Intermediate Public Transport (IPT) as an access mode to the Metro stations in Delhi. Tablet-based face-to-face surveys were conducted to collect responses from 1121 commuters towards perceived importance and satisfaction ratings of 18 service quality attributes under study on a 6-point Likert scale. Collected responses were analysed using Revised Importance Performance Analysis. Implicit importance values of all the attributes were calculated to derive the factor structures and management schemes using the Fuzzy C-means clustering technique. The priority attributes were identified by comparing the factor structures and management schemes. Finally, the study proposed a priority order of resource allocation to improve attributes influencing IPT as access modes to the Metro stations. The study findings identified that 'Transportation Subsidy', 'Accessibility in Bad Weather' and 'Universal Design Considerations' were top priority attributes that demanded resource allocation for improvement. 'Access Time', 'In-vehicle Travel Time', 'Luggage Space', 'Hygiene', 'Security', 'Riding Comfort', 'Frequency' and 'Travel Fare' were operating at optimum service levels, hence, occupied a second-level priority in terms of resource allocation to ensure the levels were maintained. Two low-priority attributes, 'Information at IPT stop' and 'On-board Information' occupied a third-level priority in terms of resource allocation for improvement. Attributes under 'Possible Overkill', namely, 'Safety', 'Convenience', 'Waiting Time', 'Egress Time' and 'Seat Availability', suggested transferring resources towards improving other priority service attributes. The study findings can assist transport planners and policymakers in formulating policies for improving the performance of IPT as access modes to Metro stations in Delhi and extending the approach to other contexts to supplement the mass transit systems suitably and increase their ridership.