MRT riders more satisfied in past year: Survey

MRT riders more satisfied in past year: Survey

Despite reports of MRT service disruptions from time to time, consumers have grown more satisfied with the MRT as well as the overall land transport sector in the past year.

The MRT had a customer satisfaction score of 66.4 in the latest Customer Satisfaction Index from April to July. This was up from its score of 62 for the same period last year.

In April, commuters taking the North-South line suffered at least three service delays in the space of a week, including an April 25 disruption that affected services along three MRT lines and an LRT line.

"From the data, train reliability and helpfulness of staff were key drivers of quality," said Chen Yongchang of the Institute of Service Excellence at Singapore Management University which publishes the index, at a press conference yesterday.

"And for the operators, we do see them working in the right direction by trying to fix these issues through initiatives like adding more trains (and) replacing the signals and sleepers," he added.

He noted that they had also stationed customer service officers at train stations during peak hours.

A total of 13,355 respondents were polled for the survey.

Overall, consumers were more satisfied with the land transport sector, which had a score of 66.8 out of 100, up from 63.3 last year. Taxi services scored 70, up from 65.9 last year.

For the first time this year, participants were asked to rate their satisfaction levels with land transport booking apps. Uber ranked first with a score of 69.7, followed by Grab and ComfortDelGro.

Neeta Lachmandas, executive director of the institute, said security and factors associated with ease of use of the apps were key factors in the perceived quality of the apps.

rahimahr@sph.com.sg


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