SERVICE QUALITY OF METRO RAIL AND ITS IMPACT ON COMMUTERS SATISFACTION: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF SELECTED SOUTH INDIAN CITIES

Services are people centric, humanistic and subjective and the outcome of service mainly depends on its quality. Service quality is the comparison of perceived expectation of a service with perceived performance. This empirical study attempts to understand the dimensions of service quality in the context of Metro Rail Corporations among South Zone of India. Metro is a rapid transit system serving the demographic and geographic needs of people. To ensure reliability and safety in train operations, it is equipped with most modern communication technology and train control system. It offers number of benefits to commuters such as long-distance travel, safe travel, high speed and hassle-free travel. The present study is conducted using SERVQUAL model to find and analyze commuter’s perception on ten service quality dimensions – Reliability, Responsiveness, Understandability, Communication, Credibility, Courtesy, Tangibility, Empathy, Assurance and Security and to identify level of commuter’s satisfaction on services provided by MRCs. The study is carried out by using structured questionnaire. Convenience sampling with 814 respondents were taken for data collection.