Singaporeans' public transport satisfaction dipped 1.5%

Could rising ridership be the culprit?

About 9 in 10 or 88.8% of respondents surveyed were satisfied with Singapore’s overall public transport services based on the Public Transport Customer Satisfaction Survey (PTCSS) 2012, conducted in October last year by SIM University (UniSIM). 

This is a dip of 1.5 percentage points from 90.3% in 2011. On a 10-point rating scale1, overall satisfaction level stood at 7.0, 0.1 point down from 7.1 recorded in 2011.

Of the eight service attributes surveyed2, respondents ranked ‘travel time’ as the most important service attribute, followed by ‘safety and security’, and ‘waiting time’. 82.8% of those surveyed were satisfied with the ‘travel time’ on our public transport system, 86.5% were satisfied with ‘safety and security’, and 64.1% were satisfied with ‘waiting time’.

The percentage of commuters satisfied with ‘travel time’ improved in 2012 compared to 2011. On the other hand, ‘safety and security’ and ‘waiting time’ received lower ratings and percentages of satisfied commuters in 2012.

The dips in satisfaction levels may be a reflection of increased ridership, with average daily ridership increasing by about 5.9% to 6.13 million in 2012.

Overall, although satisfaction levels and ratings generally fell compared to last year, a majority (63.6%) of respondents felt that public transport had improved from last year. This could possibly be attributed to recognition by commuters of the various efforts put in to improve public transport services.