Service quality attributes in urban bus services: The experience of Belem-Para/Brazil

Abstract

The city of Belem, in Brazil's northern region, is known as the gateway of the Amazon and is also capital of the Para state and part of a metropolitan region. In the last 10 years, deep changes in the metropolitan socioeconomic and land use structures have led to a decrease in bus ridership. This is due to congestion jams in bus corridors and continuous quality deterioration of bus services. A survey was done to determine and evaluate which service attributes influence users' opinions that allow them to have a negative image of bus transport. Data were obtained through a home survey (500 households) applied to bus users in order to identify their socioeconomic status, trip patterns, service evaluation and both favourable and unfavourable opinions towards bus services. A detailed analysis of the results permits the identification of the most important existing problems and shortcomings and gives subsidy to a comprehensive diagnosis of the whole bus transport system. © 2009 WIT Press.