Factors Influencing Passengers’ Preference towards Public Bus Transportation from Kelantan to Northern Region

Abstract

A convenient and reliable transport system is integral for every country’s development and this study investigates the factors that influence passengers’ preference towards public bus transportation from Kelantan to Northern Region. The number of passengers who travel to Northern Region by public bus transportation is larger than using train and flight. This research adopted quantitative method where a total of 384 respondents who are using express bus to commute to their destinations. This study was performed in Kota Bharu, Kelantan using simple random sampling technique. The study tested the hypothesis that the factors are positively related to the passengers’ preference. The reliability and Pearson Correlation was also tested with the help of Cronbach’ Alpha. The findings of this study show that factorssuch as accessibility, convenience and safety, play considerable role in promoting the use of public bus transportation. However, the study revealed that price of the bus ticket was the leading factor that influence passengers’ preference. The results of this study will be helpful to the management of bus operators in their effort to continuously upgrade their services for their customer services and recommends that future studies should be conducted using a large sample size and also involve other bus transport service providers in other states or Malaysia as a whole.