Study On The Relationship Among The City Rail Transit Service Quality, Passenger Satisfaction And Loyalty Based On The Structural Equation Model

The City rail transit, which is one mode of all the rapid transportation modes, has relieved the urban traffic congestions to a certain extent and brought quickness and convenience for the citizens’ travel. The service quality of the City rail transit is the key factor to improve the passenger satisfaction and loyalty, which is also the basis for the successful operation and sustainable development of the urban rail transit enterprises.Based on the analysis of city rail transit system, this paper takes the service quality of the city rail transit, the passengers’ satisfaction and loyalty as the research object and uses the structural equation model to research the relationship among the city rail transit service quality, passenger satisfaction and passenger loyalty. Firstly, Based on literature review and documents analysis, this paper has researched the relevant theories, such as satisfaction theory, loyalty theory and perceived service quality theory, and analyzed the status of the relationship research among the satisfaction, loyalty and service quality. Secondly, this paper has analyzed the contents and characteristics of the city rail transit. Based on the passengers’ travel behavior analysis and the passengers’ demand analysis for the city rail transit, this paper has established an index system for the evaluation of the passengers’ satisfaction and loyalty to the service quality of the city rail transit from the perspectives of service quality, passenger satisfaction and passenger loyalty.Based on the data from the questionnaire survey, a passenger satisfaction evaluation knowledge system for the urban rail transit service quality is established. The rough set theory is used to reduce the key factors that affect the satisfaction on the urban rail transit service quality. Thirdly, this paper has designed a passenger satisfaction and loyalty evaluation questionnaire for the city rail transit service quality based on the index system. The metro line 1, line 2 and line 13 in Beijing are selected as the investigation place and reasonable investigation population is selected to make a survey. At last, based on the basic data from the survey, this paper has used the structural equation method to establish a model to analyze the relationship among the city rail transit service quality, passenger satisfaction and loyalty. The model has made hypothesis on the relationship of city rail transit service quality and passenger satisfaction, passenger satisfaction and passenger loyalty, city rail transit service quality and passenger loyalty. The AMOS17.0 is used to validate the models. From the model analysis and model test, we can get the conclusion that(1) The Convenience, Speed, Price, Comfort and Security of the city rail transit have a direct and positive effect on the passenger satisfaction. The descending order of the factors’ influence degree to the passenger satisfaction is Convenience>Comfort>Speed>Security>Price.(2) The passenger satisfaction has a direct and positive effect on the passenger loyalty. The descending order of the passengers’ satisfaction influence degree to the passenger Loyalty is: passengers’ frequency of city rail-taking>passengers’ next travel will>passengers’ tolerance to the price>passengers’ recommendation will.(3) The operation punctuality and the train headway in the Convenience factor, the rationalization of the station set-up, convenience of in and out stations, transfer convenience, explicitness of the navigation and labeling system in the Speed factor, the congestion in the station/vehicle, the train stability in the Comfort factor, the passenger safety, the order in and out train, the elevator and escalator safety in the security factor all have a direct and positive effect on the passenger loyalty.(4) The Convenience, Speed, Price, Comfort and Security of the city rail transit have an indirect and positive effect on the passenger loyalty. These factors will influence the passenger satisfaction positivity, and then influence the passenger loyalty positivity by the passenger satisfaction.