Public transport satisfaction in 2021 dips to its lowest since 2015: Survey
Commuters are seen on an MRT train in Singapore on Nov 5, 2021. (File photo: AFP/Roslan Rahman)
SINGAPORE: Overall satisfaction with public transport in Singapore in 2021 dipped to its lowest level since 2015, a Public Transport Council (PTC) survey has found.
The council said on Thursday (Feb 10) that 92 per cent of people surveyed were satisfied with public transport in 2021, down from 97.6 per cent in 2020.
That is the lowest since 2015, when overall satisfaction with public transport was 91.8 per cent.
Satisfaction with public transport, bus and MRT since 2015
| Â | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 |
| Public transport | 91.8 | 96.4 | 94.5 | 97.9 | 99.4 | 97.6 | 92.0 |
| MRT | 93.2 | 96.0 | 91.8 | 97.8 | 99.5 | 97.9 | 93.6 |
| Bus | 90.7 | 96.7 | 96.7 | 98.0 | 99.3 | 97.3 | 90.8 |
The survey is conducted annually and “seeks to understand commuters’ expectations and needs”, as well as to identify areas for improvement, said the PTC.
The 2021 survey was conducted online, with 4,212 commuters aged 15 and above, between Oct 11 and Dec 3 last year.
Respondents were asked to provide a rating of between 1 to 10, with 1 representing very dissatisfied or unimportant. Those who gave a score of 6 were deemed to be satisfied.
While overall satisfaction dipped in 2021, the mean satisfaction score remained at 7.8 for the third consecutive year, with ratings given by commuters for individual service attributes.
The service attributes are safety and security, waiting time, reliability, service information, bus interchange or bus stop or MRT station accessibility, comfort, travel time and customer service.
MRT SERVICES
Overall satisfaction for MRT services dipped from 97.9 per cent in 2020 to 93.6 per cent in 2021, although there was an increase in ratings for service information and station accessibility.
All other service attributes for MRT saw dips in 2021 compared to the year before.
The mean satisfaction score for MRT services remained at 7.9.
BUS SERVICES
Overall satisfaction with bus services also saw a hit, dropping to 90.8 per cent in 2021 from 97.3 per cent the previous year.
The were small increases in satisfaction of service information and bus interchange or bus stop accessibility, but all other service attributes dipped.
The mean satisfaction score for bus services also dropped slightly from 7.8 to 7.7.
Last year's survey was carried out by Forbes Research.
“To provide a more accurate reflection of commuters’ satisfaction and better representativeness of the population, weighting adjustments were applied to the results collected,” said the PTC.
“Respondents’ satisfaction ratings for the eight service attributes were weighted by their respective importance ratings to obtain the overall mean satisfaction ratings for bus and MRT services.
“These were then weighted by the relative proportions of actual bus and MRT ridership to derive a single overall satisfaction rating for the public transport system as a whole.”
