How to Study Perceived Quality in Public Transport

This chapter aims to provide an overall view of the birth and development of research into the quality users of public transport perceive they receive from the service. The procedures and manuals developed in the European Union and the United States will be described to support public transport managers and operating companies in accurately assessing their services. The main characteristics and methodological aspects inherent in this concept will also be described along with the principal methods used for evaluating quality being classified in a way that differentiates between aggregate methods and disaggregate methods and, in turn, between those methods based only on user perceptions and those based on their expectations and perceptions together. Brief descriptions will be provided about various methods such as the SERVQUAL model, the SERVPERF model, the IPA model, and the Zones of Tolerance, as well as some of their varieties. Finally, the different methodologies used to obtain the importance users place on each attribute describing their public transport service will be addressed, differentiating between the stated importance method and the derived importance method, highlighting their advantages and disadvantages in each case.