An Analysis of Lahore Metro bus Service

Abstract

Pakistan has experienced a rapid motorization in last few decades as motorized vehicle population increased from about 5.3 million in year 2002 to 11 million vehicles of all type in year 2012. Also, the large scale migration of people into cities has resulted into urban sprawl and is incurring huge social cost in term of traffic congestion and higher housing prices. Aging transportation infrastructure of cities like Lahore is unable to meet the enhanced traffic demand due to increased motorization. A well-planned, efficient and sustainable urban transportation system is necessary to meet enhanced travel demand in major cities of Pakistan. In present study, an effort has been made to access the service quality provided by the Lahore Metrobus which starting operations in March 2013. Present study developed an enhanced framework to carry out a detailed analysis of commuter satisfaction and quality of service provided by the Lahore Metrobus. Study used both subjective and well as objective scenarios to assimilate commuter satisfaction with existing quality of service of Lahore Metrobus. A comprehensive questionnaire was used to collect data on commuters socio-economic characteristics (gender, age, auto ownership, income level, profession, and number of individuals with a valid driving license in the family), traveling trends (travelling mode, daily commute timings, average distance travelled to get to public transport prior to Metrobus operations, present distance travelled to get the Metrobus, mode to get Metrobus, if longer distances are involved, purpose of commuting by Metrobus, average daily distance travelled by Metrobus, average number of weekly trips in Metrobus and commuter rating of overall level of satisfaction with Metrobus (extremely satisfied, satisfied, neutral, unsatisfied and extremely unsatisfied). A total of 400 valid responses collected at all (27) stops of Lahore Metrobus were used for present study. Due to the ordinal nature of the response variable (overall level of satisfaction of commuter with Lahore Metrobus) an ordered probit model has been estimated to study the association of overall level of satisfaction of commuter with Lahore Metrobus with different explanatory variables. Model results revealed that male commuters, commuters from a family size of more than five members, commuters with an average commute time of over 25 minutes before start of Lahore Metrobus and commuters with higher XII perception of Lahore Metrobus customer service and frequency are more likely have higher satisfaction of overall level of service provided by Lahore Metrobus. Study results also revealed that a commuter belonging to a family with more number of individuals having valid driving licenses (a proxy for higher income and education) is less likely to have higher satisfaction of overall level of service provided by Lahore Metrobus, and more likely have lower satisfaction of overall level of service provided by Lahore Metrobus. Marginal effects are computed to see the impact of six significant variables on the intermediate categories of the commuters overall level of satisfaction with Lahore Metrobus. In second part of present study, service performance evaluation of Lahore Metrobus was carried out in terms of established public transit criteria for the level of service. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected from field and values obtained were compared with recommended standards given by Transit Cooperation Research Program of USA. Seven service performance measure (quality attributes) that were considered in present study include: (1) reliability (2) assurance (3) comfort (4) responsiveness (5) availability (6) convenience and (7) accessibility. The field data for seven quality attributes (such as headway, frequency, physical amenities and travel speed) were collected from different bus stations and the collected information was then compared with the recommended level of service given in the literature for each indicator or by comparing it with the conventional public bus system attributes or agency standards. The overall service performance was then compared with the commuter satisfaction survey to seek the differences between the commuters expectation and the agency overall service performance. The study results revealed that Lahore Metrobus is providing reasonable level of service to the commuters that meet commuters’ expectation and recommended standards given by Transit Cooperation Research Program of USA. The seven quality attributes i-e reliability, assurance, comfort, responsiveness, availability, convenience and accessibility are found to be equally satisfied from commuters’ point of view and agency provided standards. The results of the present study are expected to help transit agencies, policy makers and planners to improve the Metrobus services in different cities of Pakistan.