A Study on Passengers Satisfaction towards Indian Railway Services (With Special Reference to Madurai City)

Abstract

India is one of the largest countries in terms of geographical size, which requires efficient means for long-distance transportation. Public transport, being the primary mode of transport, remains a powerful yardstick to measure the overall development of a nation. Among the various modes of transport, Railways are one of the biggest modes of passenger transport in the world. The Railway passenger services face long term competitive threats from airlines, luxury buses, personalized transport, and improved public transport. To compete with other modes of transport, it is inevitable for railways to accelerate the growth of passenger’s origination. It is essential for the railway authorities to know the opinion of the passengers regarding the services offered to them to make future policies and provisions. Having this drive in mind, the researchers have undertaken a study about the services provided by the Indian Railways along with its objectives to analyze the passengers’ preferences, satisfaction, limitations, and perceptions towards the same. Every aspect related to railway services like ticket availability, quality of travel, employee behavior, safety, timing, and other relevant aspects is analyzed at different levels of the research. As passenger satisfaction is chosen to be the concept for this research, elements that allow passengers to feel satisfied with offered services are also mentioned in the theoretical part. The scope of this project is limited to passengers of Madurai city.