Development of Railqual:A Service Quality Scale for Measuring Indian Railway Passenger

Abstract

The main objective of this study is to present a framework developed for assisting Railways to monitor and control the quality of services provided to passengers. The study evaluated the passenger Rail Service quality of Indian Railways by developing RAILQUAL instrument on the basis of SERVQUAL and Rail Transport quality. Three new transport dimensions (comfort, security and convenience) are added to the original five SERVQUAL dimensions (i.e. assurance, empathy, reliability, responsiveness and tangibles). The instrument is tested for reliability and validity. Empirical study was conducted at Secunderabad Railway station of South Central Railway, India, using a purposive sample of 100 respondents. Valid responses from the questionnaire are statistically analyzed by using factor analysis. This study identified the attributes to evaluate the quality of Railway Passenger Services and develops a comprehensive instrument “RAILQUAL”, which can be used by the Railways for collecting feedback from passengers. This study would help the Railways to monitor, control and improve the service. It can also be used as a tool for comparing the performance of various Railway Zones and Divisions across the country.Keywords: Railqual; Service Quality; Indian Railways