Perceived service quality in bus transit service: A structural equation approach

This paper proposes a methodology for evaluating the quality of service perceived by users of a bus transit service. A Structural Equation Model (SEM) approach is used to reveal the unobserved latent aspects describing the service and the relationships between these aspects with the Overall Service Quality. Data from a Customer Satisfaction Survey conducted by the Transport Consortium of Granada (Spain) are analyzed. A total of 1200 surveys were collected, and two passengers’ statements about the Overall Service Quality were gathered: the first one when passengers have not reflected on the attributes describing the service, and the second one after they have thought about them. This is the first time that the Overall Service Quality of a public transport system has been jointly explained by these two overall evaluations when a SEM approach is adopted.