Abstract:
High occupancy public bus transport services in some countries have gradually dropped due to its less competitive service performance. This has resulted in deteriorating the sustainability of the transportation system especially in developing countries such as Ghana. The study mainly aims to identify the perception and expectation of service quality factors related to commuters’ satisfaction and usage of bus services in Ghana. Using two approaches, a sample of 816 public bus users completed a questionnaire on perception and expectation measures at terminals in six regional capitals in Ghana. The result of the preliminary analysis shows that in the gap analysis, there is a wide gap between commuters’ expectations and perception of Public Bus Transport (PBT) service quality attributes. The “path model” revealed that affordability and availability were the most significant service quality attributes related to perceived commuters’ satisfaction. With the expectation model, availability, security and reliability were the most significant service quality attributes related to passengers' expected satisfaction. The coefficient between satisfaction and usage of bus transport, and the variance explained in these variables (satisfaction and usage) by the expectation model is stronger compared to the perception model. This explains that passengers’ satisfaction and usage of PBT would be enhanced when transport operators provide services that accommodate the expectations of service required by passengers. The interventions suggested will stimulate passengers’ satisfaction, promote sustainable mobility, reduce energy consumption, and emissions.
