Abstract
The South Africa passenger railway industry has a vibrant history. The railway industry has contributed to the country's economic development through freight and commuting of passengers. Public transport is seen as the lifeblood of many nations because a large number of citizens is dependent on the mobility needs it provides. The public transport system in South Africa is not as efficient as expected and is faced by many economic and social problems that have been overlooked for far too long. These problems have aggravated the quality of service delivered and the lack of modal integration. It is imperative that a sustainable long-term solution needs to be implemented because, if things remain the same, there could be a serious impact on the mobility of communities. This study is of particular importance as it focuses on understanding passengers’ perceptions and expectations of Metrorail services, which envisages improving the quality of service rendered by Metrorail.
The purpose of the study was to assess passengers’ perception of Metrorail service in Johannesburg, using the service quality dimensions of reliability, extent of service, comfort, safety and affordability to evaluate the services offered by Metrorail trains. Primary and secondary data were used to derive sources for the research study. The secondary data was gathered through detail review of related literature, while the primary data was collected by the means of a questionnaire which was distributed, to Metrorail passengers at the three different routes namely; Naledi, Germiston and Dunswart. A sample of 700 respondents participated in the study. The respondents were targeted from the three routes in Johannesburg because the study focused mainly on the selected routes. The survey was administered to individual passengers at Metrorail stations by the researcher and forty other field workers. A probability sample was chosen for the study, in which a simple random sampling was employed. A simple random sample was selected because it is accurate and the respondents were easily selected. The data collected was analysed using Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS).
The study outcomes revealed that passengers perceive quality of Metrorail to be significant for the five-service dimensions of perception and expectation. The outcome showed that Metrorail did not provide the appropriate service and did not meet customer expectations. From the five service dimensions, reliability had the highest negative score which implied that Metrorail services is not reliable.