Prioritizing service attributes for quality up‐gradation of Indian railway stations

Purpose – With an objective to measure the quality of service provided at Indian railway stations, the purpose of this paper is to propose a method that indicates the level of importance and satisfaction which other known methods of service quality assessment do not clearly provide. In total, six attributes related to passenger services of an Indian railway station are considered. Prioritization of the attributes for improvement of service quality can be decided based on the proposed method. Design/methodology/approach – The Law of Categorical Judgment is used to determine levels of importance and levels of satisfaction of disaggregated passenger groups and passengers as a whole. The law is applied to the responses obtained, using a Likert scale, to the six attributes through random passenger survey of different groups at Howrah Railway Station, a major railway terminal in eastern India. The objective is to check the difference in importance levels and satisfaction levels and then prioritize for improvement accordingly. Findings – The findings are based on the responses of passengers to the questions designed for the purpose of assessing the service quality based on six different attributes. Analysis of results shows that both the levels of importance, as well as satisfaction, can be assessed by the Law of Categorical Judgment. The results indicate that passengers are mostly dissatisfied with “extent of waiting”; thereafter, there is a desire for further improvement of the “security” system. The “travel associated facilities” such as Automated Teller Machine and use of cashless facilities at ticket counters; and “passenger amenities” such as station furniture and refreshment room have also been ranked higher in terms of need for improvements. Research limitations/implications – The work excludes some of the intangible service aspects such as behaviour, friendliness, managerial skills, etc. Originality/value – The designed methodology helps in making decisions on levels of service, which is a better indicator of the service quality, particularly for public services such as railway stations.