Should I Travel by Metro? Analyzing the Service Quality Perception of Elderly and Physically Disabled Passengers in Delhi, India

Transit officials worldwide continuously learn from passenger perception surveys to improve service quality and enhance transit ridership. However, many elderly and physically disabled (E&PD) passengers are transit users with special needs whose service requirements have received insufficient attention in the past. In fact, providing satisfactory transit services to E&PD passengers is often a critical challenge for transit officials, since a theory of interrelations among service factors is not yet established from E&PD passengers’ perspectives. Therefore, the present study aims to establish interrelations among service quality factors and identify service improvements for E&PD passengers using satisfaction data from 254 E&PD passengers of Delhi Metro. For this purpose, this study has employed an integrated Bayesian networks and partial least squares path modeling approach. The obtained results have shown some remarkable and meaningful interpretations. For instance, a one-unit increase in satisfaction with the “safety & security” factor would induce a 68% increase in their satisfaction with overall service quality. Besides, importance–performance map analysis showed that Delhi Metro must consider “safety and security,”“passenger ease,” and “seamless connectivity” as high-priority areas needing improvements to promote E&PD-friendly transit services. Overall, the findings of this study suggest several policy measures that would enrich the service quality and achieve universal design standards in metro rail transit systems.