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Rail transportation plays a crucial role in facilitating efficient and sustainable urban development, particularly in densely populated areas. This study aims to evaluate customer satisfaction with the public transport system in Malaysia, with a focus on rail transportation. The research examines various factors that influence customer satisfaction, including service quality, punctuality, convenience, safety, and cleanliness. The study utilizes a mixed-methods approach, combining secondary data analysis and primary data collection. Secondary data analysis involves a comprehensive review of existing literature, including academic papers, government reports, and industry publications. Primary data is collected through a structured questionnaire administered to a sample of rail transport users in the Klang Valley region. The findings highlight the importance of service quality in shaping customer satisfaction. Factors such as reliable and punctual train arrivals, convenient and comfortable facilities, and a clean and safe environment emerge as key determinants of customer satisfaction. The study also identifies areas for improvement, including enhancing the efficiency of ticketing systems, increasing seating capacity during peak hours, and addressing cleanliness issues at stations and on trains. The research findings have implications for policymakers, transport authorities, and rail operators. By understanding the factors that influence customer satisfaction, stakeholders can design strategies to enhance the quality of rail transportation services. Improving customer satisfaction levels can lead to increased ridership, reduced road congestion, and a more sustainable transport system. The findings can also inform future infrastructure development plans and guide decision-making processes in the public transport sector. Overall, this study contributes to the growing body of knowledge on customer satisfaction in rail transportation and provides valuable insights for improving the quality and effectiveness of Malaysia's public transport system, specifically in the context of rail transportation.

Rail transportation plays a crucial role in facilitating efficient and sustainable urban development, particularly in densely populated areas. This study aims to evaluate customer satisfaction with the public transport system in Malaysia, with a focus on rail transportation. The research examines various factors that influence customer satisfaction, including service quality, punctuality, convenience, safety, and cleanliness. The study utilizes a mixedmethods approach, combining secondary data analysis and primary data collection. Secondary data analysis involves a comprehensive review of existing literature, including academic papers, government reports, and industry publications. Primary data is collected through a structured questionnaire administered to a sample of rail transport users in the Klang Valley region. The findings highlight the importance of service quality in shaping customer satisfaction. Factors such as reliable and punctual train arrivals, convenient and comfortable facilities, and a clean and safe environment emerge as key determinants of customer satisfaction. The study also identifies areas for improvement, including enhancing the efficiency of ticketing systems, increasing seating capacity during peak hours, and addressing cleanliness issues at stations and on trains. The research findings have implications for policymakers, transport authorities, and rail operators. By understanding the factors that influence customer satisfaction, stakeholders can design strategies to enhance the quality of rail transportation services. Improving customer satisfaction levels can lead to increased ridership, reduced road congestion, and a more sustainable transport system. The findings can also inform future infrastructure development plans and guide decision-making processes in the public transport sector. Overall, this study contributes to the growing body of knowledge on customer satisfaction in rail transportation and provides valuable insights for improving the quality and effectiveness of Malaysia's public transport system, specifically in the context of rail transportation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bus rapid transit (BRT) systems have emerged as efficient, convenient, and cost-effective solutions to meet customer transport needs. Since their advent in developing countries, a plethora of research has examined the service quality attributes of such systems that contribute to customers' overall satisfaction. Yet, there have been some methodological gaps that have limited understanding of what maximizes customer satisfaction with the service quality of the BRT system. This current study intends to fill such gaps and examines drivers of explicit and derived customer satisfaction with BRT systems in the emerging economy of Pakistan. In-depth interviews were first conducted to identify key service quality dimensions for BRT customers from four major Pakistani cities. A structured survey was then used to collect data from a total of 481 respondents (useable responses) using the Qualtrics platform. Data were analyzed via gap analysis, importance-performance grid, and regression analyses in SPSS to identify service quality elements that derive BRT customer satisfaction. These three data analysis techniques produced varying findings regarding service quality dimensions needing improvement to increase satisfaction. This study provides critical insights to improve the customers' BRT experience and some theoretical contributions for future researchers. • Four BRT systems are analyzed in a developing economy. • Importance Performance analysis is conducted. • Explicit and derived satisfaction approaches yield different results. • Ease of access, coverage, and timely information are attributed to focus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organization and management of Public Passenger Transport (PPT) system is a complex process, which significantly impacts the functioning of the system. Globally, there is no unique solution for organization model of PPT, but the organization models are adjusted to the characteristics of each individual area. Organization model of PPT, inherited from the self-management system of the former Socialist Federal Republic (SFR) Yugoslavia, became unsustainable in the Municipality of Inđija (Serbia) and did not fulfil transport needs and demands of passengers regarding the amount of transport and its quality in optimal manner. Old organization model has been replaced by a new modern model, based on positive experiences from developed European cities. Article presents the impact of new organization model of PPT on the work of the system. Research has been conducted in order to determine the state of both old and new system’s organization model by counting and interviewing passengers during years 2008 and 2017. In accordance with the changes made in the system, comparative analysis “before and after changes” has been done along with establishing of the effects of changes on functioning of the system and service quality. Results show significantly improved service quality, while transport demands increase by 38.3%.

The Covid-19 outbreak, which caused the world to go out of the usual order and deeply affected the world, caused many people to contract the Sars-CoV-2 virus and even lost their lives due to this virus. The fact that a virus that threatens human life spreads faster in densely populated areas such as cities has brought along many measures. Measures such as imposing a person limit on public transportation systems, which have an essential share in enabling urbanites to participate in socio-cultural activities on their compulsory journeys, abandoning the current working system in all public/private institutions and switching to flexible, remote or rotational working systems have been implemented. These measures, implemented to break the spread of the virus, have moved the daily routine of the urbanites between four walls and restricted their mobility. Within the scope of this study, the attitude of the city dwellers towards the public transportation system and vaccination efforts against the pandemic during the pandemic period was examined with a case study. In this study conducted in the context of Süleymanpaşa, the central district of Tekirdağ, public transit passenger data, Covid-19 patient count data and vaccination data between January 2021 and December 2021 were used. In this framework, a prediction model was developed with the Least Squares Method for a medium-sized city. In the model developed against future pandemics, the impact of the number of patients and vaccination on public transportation use was revealed. In addition to the effect of the number of patients on the public transportation system, an original contribution to the existing literature is presented by including vaccination as an input to the model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In most urban cities, the correct design of the bus routes network is a critical task to design a successful transportation system. Thus, network designers rely on solving the Urban Transit Routing Problem (UTRP) to find a set of bus routes that minimises users travelling time and system operator costs. Most UTRP instances lack real-life demand data information, are very small w.r.t. typical scenarios or standards, or are randomly generated. Moreover, state-of-the-art dimensional reduction techniques use inherent features of urban transportation systems; therefore, they cannot significantly reduce the order of magnitude in complex cases. This article proposes a framework for generating UTRP instances that shrink the complexity of substantial real-life scenarios through well-known clustering algorithms and geographic database applications. The generated instances preserve the original demand behaviour and road structure by connecting central and periphery locations. We discuss and validate this proposal by applying it in a complex study case, the RED system from Santiago of Chile. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organization and management of Public Passenger Transport (PPT) system is a complex process, which significantly impacts the functioning of the system. Globally, there is no unique solution for organization model of PPT, but the organization models are adjusted to the characteristics of each individual area. Organization model of PPT, inherited from the self-management system of the former Socialist Federal Republic (SFR) Yugoslavia, became unsustainable in the Municipality of Inđija (Serbia) and did not fulfil transport needs and demands of passengers regarding the amount of transport and its quality in optimal manner. Old organization model has been replaced by a new modern model, based on positive experiences from developed European cities. Article presents the impact of new organization model of PPT on the work of the system. Research has been conducted in order to determine the state of both old and new system's organization model by counting and interviewing passengers during years 2008 and 2017. In accordance with the changes made in the system, comparative analysis "before and after changes" has been done along with establishing of the effects of changes on functioning of the system and service quality. Results show significantly improved service quality, while transport demands increase by 38.3%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The transportation sector is considered one of the most important sectors affecting the planning and development of cities. It is the responsible sector for traffic and transport inter- and intra-cities through the mass transit systems, which reflect the civilization, urban, economic, and social levels of cities. The importance of this study lies in studying the most important mass transit systems, namely the metro system, as stated unanimously by transport experts and urban planners. It is characterized by speed, safety, and punctuality. It avoids bus drawbacks such as slowness and mixing with other types of traffic. This research aims to find a set of criteria that contribute to improving metro performance and increasing its efficiency. In this paper, some standards were collected from 29 countries with metro systems that are considered successful as they meet the needs of their communities. Conducting the principal component analysis (PCA) and multiple regression analysis (MRA) has produced three mathematical equations to explain the impact of these standards in improving the performance and efficiency of the metro system. The results showed that there is no one set of specific standards among the countries around the world that could be sufficient to rely on to monitor and evaluate metro system performance, which requires further studying and research in this area.

United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Number 11 aims to promote inclusiveness and sustainable urbanization, such that cities can become productive and accessible places for attracting talent, encouraging innovation, and creating economic growth. SDG Target 11.2 specifically mentions urban transport. Localizing SDG Target 11.2 involves city governments ensuring a public transport (PT) system that has at least two dimensions of accessibility: physical and economic. This translates to ensuring barrier-free physical access to the PT system, as well as affordable fares for using the PT system. This study presents a process for operationalizing the SDG Target 11.2 indicator for small cities in India. The study focuses on addressing physical access to quality public transport system. Presently, the commuters in these cities are dependent on intermediate PT (IPT) systems to meet their mobility needs.Small cities lack a detailed database for planning PT systems. Master plans are generally prepared by planning authorities to guide the future development of cities; however, the master plan documents lack discussion and vision for future mobility, as required by SDG Target 11.2. This study concludes that the current indicator for SDG Target 11.2 requires modification to ensure SDG-compliant PT systems in small cities. An integrated IPT and PT system is required to improve access to high-quality PT systems, in line with SDG Target 11.2.

Identification of the role of the waterbus system in the development of tourism in a large coastal city – a tourist center of international importance. Cartographic materials, qualitative and quantitative data on the waterbus system, spatial development and tourist traffic were used. Quantitative temporal and spatial analyses were conducted, including GIS analyses. Service of the tourist traffic is the dominant function of the waterbus in Gdańsk. This is determined by three categories of factors: (i) the seasonal nature of the system and a low level of integration with the public transport system; (ii) low potential demand for transport services due to the fact that most of the stops are far away from large residential or work centers; (iii) proximity of most of the city’s main tourist attractions to the stops. The obtained results are helpful in programming the development of public transport systems, especially in large tourist coastal cities. The conditions of spatial development are of key importance for shaping the dominant function of the waterbus.

In 2015, Fort-de-France, the main city of Martinique, a small French West Indies island, made the ambitious decision to introduce a new mode of public transportation, a reserved public transport lane, or ‘RPTL’. Based on the Technology Acceptance Model, we conducted a survey to identify the determinants of intention to use the new mode of transport by current public transport users on the island. These determinants seem to vary depending on the frequency of use of the current transport system. Hence, when people already used public transport every day (high frequency), their intention to use the RPTL is solely predicted by the perceived usefulness of the RPTL. For those who use it less often (moderate frequency), only the norm―i.e., what others do―and age were predictors of intention to use the RPTL. Finally, for rare public transport users (low frequency), their intention is predicted by perceived usefulness and social norms. These results show that all users have different reasons for using this new mode of transport. Identifying these determinants could be useful to local politicians, enabling them to make efficient information and promotion campaigns for the RPTL, and especially designed for those potential users who are not familiar with public transport.

Robustness studies on integrated urban public transport networks have attracted growing attention in recent years due to the significant influence on the overall performance of urban transport system. In this paper, topological properties and robustness of a bus–subway coupled network in Beijing, composed of both bus and subway networks as well as their interactions, are analyzed. Three new models depicting cascading failure processes on the coupled network are proposed based on an existing binary influence modeling approach. Simulation results show that the proposed models are more accurate than the existing method in reflecting actual passenger flow redistribution in the cascading failure process. Moreover, the traffic load influence between nodes also plays a vital role in the robustness of the network. The proposed models and derived results can be utilized to improve the robustness of integrated urban public transport systems in traffic planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Number 11 aims to promote inclusiveness and sustainable urbanization, such that cities can become productive and accessible places for attracting talent, encouraging innovation, and creating economic growth. SDG Target 11.2 specifically mentions urban transport. Localizing SDG Target 11.2 involves city governments ensuring a public transport (PT) system that has at least two dimensions of accessibility: physical and economic. This translates to ensuring barrier-free physical access to the PT system, as well as affordable fares for using the PT system. This study presents a process for operationalizing the SDG Target 11.2 indicator for small cities in India. The study focuses on addressing physical access to quality public transport system. Presently, the commuters in these cities are dependent on intermediate PT (IPT) systems to meet their mobility needs. Small cities lack a detailed database for planning PT systems. Master plans are generally prepared by planning authorities to guide the future development of cities; however, the master plan documents lack discussion and vision for future mobility, as required by SDG Target 11.2. This study concludes that the current indicator for SDG Target 11.2 requires modification to ensure SDG-compliant PT systems in small cities. An integrated IPT and PT system is required to improve access to high-quality PT systems, in line with SDG Target 11.2. • An integrated bus and intermediate public transport system can provide access to ~90% of the city population in small cities. • Improvement in Improvement in non-motorized transport (NMT) network and integrated public transport (PT) network, can increase 20–30% public transport demand by 2025, 30–50% increase by 2030 in small cities in India. • Improved intermediate PT (IPT) services in small cities can provide access to 20–30% of the population. • Sustainable Development Goal Target 11.2.1 should include IPT access and a shorter access distance of 300–400 m,. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Identification of the role of the waterbus system in the development of tourism in a large coastal city -- a tourist center of international importance. Cartographic materials, qualitative and quantitative data on the waterbus system, spatial development and tourist traffic were used. Quantitative temporal and spatial analyses were conducted, including GIS analyses. Service of the tourist traffic is the dominant function of the waterbus in Gdańsk. This is determined by three categories of factors: (i) the seasonal nature of the system and a low level of integration with the public transport system; (ii) low potential demand for transport services due to the fact that most of the stops are far away from large residential or work centers; (iii) proximity of most of the city's main tourist attractions to the stops. The obtained results are helpful in programming the development of public transport systems, especially in large tourist coastal cities. The conditions of spatial development are of key importance for shaping the dominant function of the waterbus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Demographic ageing represents an essential challenge for local authorities and public transport providers. Decision-makers should not ignore the speci c needs of this weak segment of the population and should implement appropriate policies. This paper develops a GIS-based method to analyse public transport accessibility of elderly people to support policies and planning strategies. To test the proposed method, we propose an application to the city of Naples in Italy. We selected this study case because it represents an example of high population density, complex urban structure and low level of quality of life, especially for the elderly. The application to the city of Naples showed that the urban accessibility changes dramatically for different age segments. Results also reveal patterns of public transport coverage that are signi cantly low particularly in suburban settings. The structure of this paper is organised into four sections: in the rst section, we introduce the main topic of mobility of elderly; in the second section, we describe and discuss the GIS-based method proposed; in the third section, we report on the application to the city of Naples; in the last section, we analyse the results and discuss future research developments.

Advancement of the public transport system is important to modern society for reliable performance. Intelligent public transport system can utilize the time very effectively to give better performance to the society. Fast advancement in equipment, programming, and correspondence innovations has encouraged the rise of Internetassociated devices that give perceptions and information gathering from modern reality. By interfacing, an internetenabled device with the public transport system leads to the intelligent public transport system. This paper proposed intelligent public transport with IoT enabled system to give an accurate prediction to the arrival time of the bus to the particular bus stops. Here, Artificial Neural Network (ANN) is used as a prediction algorithm and ANN is trained with different traffic parameters and environmental conditions. Parameters which are considered in the proposed system includes Distance(D), Waiting Time at Stops (WTS), Red signal Duration at Traffic Signal (RSD), Traffic Density (TD), Turning Density (TRD), Rush hours (RH), Weekends (WE), Weather conditions (WC), Number of passengers in the bus (NP), Public Holiday (PH), Road Type (RT). These parameters and the measured real-time arrival time of the bus in different stops for 10 days is used for training the ANN. This trained ANN is implemented on the server-side. In this paper, the performance of the proposed IOT-ANN-SPTS system is compared with the existing previous related works. From the performance analysis, it is shown that the proposed system produced less error (MAE=134.582, RMSE=197.738, MAPE=28.87) when compared to the other methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2015, Fort-de-France, the main city of Martinique, a small French West Indies island, made the ambitious decision to introduce a new mode of public transportation, a reserved public transport lane, or 'RPTL'. Based on the Technology Acceptance Model, we conducted a survey to identify the determinants of intention to use the new mode of transport by current public transport users on the island. These determinants seem to vary depending on the frequency of use of the current transport system. Hence, when people already used public transport every day (high frequency), their intention to use the RPTL is solely predicted by the perceived usefulness of the RPTL. For those who use it less often (moderate frequency), only the norm--i.e., what others do--and age were predictors of intention to use the RPTL. Finally, for rare public transport users (low frequency), their intention is predicted by perceived usefulness and social norms. These results show that all users have different reasons for using this new mode of transport. Identifying these determinants could be useful to local politicians, enabling them to make efficient information and promotion campaigns for the RPTL, and especially designed for those potential users who are not familiar with public transport. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]