Satisfaction levels for public buses, taxis up in Q2

The whole land transport sector scored 67.8 points.

Singapore's land transport sector scored 67.8 points in terms of customer satisfaction in Q2, up 0.99 ppt YoY, the Institute of Service Excellence at Singapore Management University (ISE@SMU) revealed.

The sector is composed of taxi services, transport booking apps, public buses, and mass rapid transit system.

According to ISE@SMU's Customer Satisfaction Index of Singapore (CSISG), only taxi services and public buses saw score increases in their scores. Taxi services' score went up 1.85 ppt to 71.8 points, whilst public buses' inched up 2.23 ppt to 64.9 points.

Despite a rise in taxi services' score, ISE@SMU saw a decline in the "comfort of the ride" factor.

Meanwhile, transport booking apps scored up by 0.52 ppt to 69.3 points, which is not considered statistically significant by ISE@SMU.

The score for mass rapid transit systems dropped 1.6 ppt to 64.8 points. Customer satisfaction and perceived quality scores for the subsector were significantly lower in July compared to the months from April to June.

ISE@SMU said the decline was related to the weekday signalling tests at the end of May and the train disruptions that followed.

"We found that ‘train frequency’, ‘handling of train disruptions’ and ‘reliability of trains’ were top attributes with significant impact on perceived quality. It is clear that commuters’ perceptions of quality relate to whether train operations are well managed to get them to their destination in an effective manner," ISE@SMU head of research and consulting Chen Yongchang said.