Benchmarking in European Service of public Transport

Transcription

1 Benchmarking in European Service of public Transport State of the Art Report December 25

2 Learning to increase travel with public transport the 6th year of BEST This report summarises the results from the BEST activities 25. The year followed the model that now has become traditional: a common survey in March, results from the survey presented before the summer, Common Interest Groups working through the year and presenting their results at the annual seminar in November, this time in. To increase travel with public transport is our important contribution to the development of sustainable European regions. That is our common goal. Systematically learning from each other is our strategy that 6 years ago was manifested in BEST: Benchmarking in European Service of public Transport. participants 25 Nine European regions participated this time in the survey:,,,,,,, and. Manchester took part in one of the benchmarking groups, where the Nordic regions and were the most common participants. Bo Tengblad Chairman of the Organizing Committee Basic philosophy To increase demand of public transport we have to get more satisfied customers and citizens. We want our regular travellers to stay with us, the not so regular customers to use us more frequently and the non-users to try public transport now and then. Obtaining that we have to offer a supply of services that corresponds to their increasing demand and expectations on the services and quality supplied. Our regions have very much in common concerning the conditions to produce and offer public transport, so there is a great potential in sharing experiences and ideas. Systematic benchmarking with the focus on processes and experiences of successful colleagues is an efficient means of bringing ideas and adding energy o our sustainable work to develop quality of service. Objectives and strategy The objectives and strategy of BEST remains the same since the start year 2. The comprehensive goal is to increase travel with public transport in our regions. We will succeed by strengthening our focus on customer needs, demand and expectations. By an efficient learning process within our network of colleagues we will create opportunities to get ideas from each other and implement action plans in our own business. An open dialogue on our development will contribute to the promotion of public transport. criteria for participation Participating regions should have 1-3 million inhabitants within the urban and suburban area. The regions have a well-developed public transport system with both rail and bus services, and an explicit strategy to increase quality of these services. evaluations Each step of our benchmarking process is regularly evaluated to produce the necessary ground for decisions on how to continue the learning process. best report december 25

3 Common survey 1 citizens in each participating region are questioned about their perception of public transport quality. To gain new regular customers it is important to know the opinions of the nonusers as well as of those who travel every day. Answers are given on a scale from 1 to 5 where 5 is a very positive opinion ( totally agree ) and 1 is a very poor grade ( not at all agree ). From percieved quality to increased demand The questions of the survey deal with six dimensions of quality. Customer expectations influence percieved quality. Together with the impact of fare structure and pricing value for money is created. Our ability to handle complaints contributes to the degree of satisfaction, which is the base for customer loyalty. Many loyal citizens are a prerequisite to increased travel with public transport. Best scores and had the best scores in three dimensions. Citizen satisfaction, reliability, personal security, social image and loyalty have top scores with 8% or more satisfied citizens, which must be regarded as very good results. Value for money, information and comfort present the lowest best scores only 6-66% of the citizens are satisfied in the top scoring regions, and these dimensions of quality reveals a general and great potential for improvements best report december 25

4 Results from the survey The results are here presented as time series for the different dimensions of quality. Behind the presented over all result for each dimension there often are several specific questions, presented at the side of the graph. As the answers to the detailed questions often offer the best platforms for improvements we here also present some results from these questions as well. Overall citizen satisfaction The results are quite stable over the observed period of time.,,, and are stable at a high level. is a impressive runner up! Traffic supply q Good for school trips q Good for other trips e.g. shopping and leisure q Good for trips in the city centre q Good for trips outside the city centre* q Nearest stop close to home q Travel time q Waiting time at transfers q Frequency of departures The newcomer reveals high scores, and shows good improvements *Good for trips outside the city centre The strength of public transport is generally not to be found outside the densest parts of the region best report december 25

5 Reliability q Capability to run on schedule and are improving, though from a rather low level Information q Access to information needed when planning a trip* q Information during traffic interuptions** There is an important difference between the two questions concerning information. Both the questions and their answers are shown below *Access to information needed when plannning a trip* The results are rather satisfactory with best report december 25

6 Results from the survey **Information during traffic interuptions Information at traffic disruptions is an area of common potential for improvement. Many regions are now implementing new technology and new processes to offer real time information to customers. The need for this is obvious: 2-35% satisfied is alarming. But the development in is encouraging Comfort q Comfortable to travel with public transport q Easy to change routes q Modern buses and trains q Clean buses and trains q Access to a seat when travelling To be a successful competitor to the private car public transport certainly has to offer better comfort in many of our regions Staff behaviour q Ability to answer questions q General behaviour of staff We get stable results on a rather moderate level. To improve customer orientation and skills among staff meeting our customers is a strategic issue best report december 25

7 Results from the survey Personal security and safety q Safety at stations and bus stops q Safety on board buses and trains q Safe traffic has been role model in this dimension for many years, and shows good and stable results. One earlier Common Interest Group had this dimension as its subject, and the recovery of may be explained by influences from that group Value for money q Public transport gives value for money q Public transport fares are reasonable Challenging results in many regions! We can not be satisfied when less 5% of the citizens think our services are worth the money paid. Improving our skills of implementing intelligent strategies for pricing should be of great interest for many public transport authorities. A deeper analyses of the effects of price increases has now been initiated by Social image q Positive development of public transport q Good for the environment and beneficial to society In spite of all the image of public transport is quite good in most of the regions around 8% of the citizens agree on that. This is a valuable platform for efficient marketing best report december 25

8 Results from the survey Loyalty q Willingness to recommend others to use public transport To build positive and sustainable relations to our customers and citizens is important. What can we learn from, and, who have improved since last year? Correlation between citizen satisfaction and travel frequency The over all objective is the increase travel 8 24 with public transport in our regions. The relation between citizen satisfaction is very stable over the years. Those who travel often are more satisfied than those who never try. The fact that the group daily users contains citizens who for different reasons are forced to use public transport frequently is revealed by the slight decrease of the curve from a few times a week to daily Daily A few times per week A few times per month Less than monthly Never Cooperation with researchers To increase and deepen knowledge on customer s demands and expectations and by close collaboration develop the skills of members of our staff is a crucial area of improvement to meet future demands. SL () has become a long term partner to the Service and Market Oriented Transport Research Group (SAMOT) at the University of Karlstad. The aim of the partnership is to initiate and discuss the progress and results from research on relevant public transport issues. One of the decided projects will analyse the relation between perceived quality and the actual supply of public transport in the regions that participate in BEST. Data collected in the BEST annual common survey will provide the information base for the project. best report december 25

9 Background facts Below are shown some background facts from the different participating regions. There are differences in size, public transport networks, modal split and other conditions. Car and population densities vary substantially. But BEST participants also have common features. In most cases there are between one and three million inhabitants, sometimes more. Operations are both urban and rural. The public transport systems are multimodal. The background facts add to the knowledge and understanding of the situation in the different participating regions best report december 25

10 Common Interest Groups 25 During 25 three groups have been working and presented their results at the seminar in. To promote accessibility of buses Participation regions are, Olso, and Manchester Throughout the latest years, congestion has become an increased problem in the efforts to provide attractive public bus services in many European cities. Growth in car ownership and use has resulted in a battle for space where buses often loose to private cars. The result of increased congestion is known as the bad circle for public bus transport: decrease in commercial speed, decrease in reliability, increased operational costs and decrease in drivers working conditions Eventually this will lead to a decrease in number of passengers and ticket income, which again will cause cuts in operations to compensate for lost income. The key to ensure a better and more attractive bus transport is to solve the congestion problem and increase the commercial speed. This can be done through a number of different actions, such as bus priority measures, parking restrictions, bus stop design, etc. The objectives of this group is to identify best practice in bus accessibility, create a network among public transport companies (including cities outside the BEST working group). The group will also study business cases prior to/and after implementation of priority schemes and establish a database on best practice, that will be presented at the seminar 26. To strengthen influence of customers Participating regions are,,, and The role model is here the Customer Advisory Board that has positive experiences from. Similar Advisory Boards has been tested but rejected in and. The group has discussed pros and cons with the Viennese model. So far none of the other participants has any action plan to implement a similar Board The Travel Guarantee that was introduced in some 1 years ago inspired to follower. The development of the guarantee to a comprehensive Customer Contract including quality promises corresponding to the goals of the contracts with operators have an important aim to strengthen the influence of customers and create right expectations. To share experiences from market research (surveys, focus groups, panels) to develop efficient means to learn from and communicate with customers is another topic of this group, which will continue 26 Revenue protection Participating regions are, and. will affiliate 26. To reduce fraud is an important objective form many public transport authorities. A leek of revenue of 4-8% means that great resources can not be used where they. After the first meeting of the group each company made an action plan based on ideas from the discussions. Inspired from colleagues in and has made very good improvement and substantially reduced the effect of dodgers. A final report was presented last seminar, but the network lives on and further presentations will be given at coming seminars. New Common Interest Groups At the seminar in November 25 several ideas of new benchmarking themes were discussed. q The importance, creation and implementation of strategic platforms q Availability for disabled q The use of internet to make PT more attractive q Implementing electronic ticketing The criteria for starting a group is that at least 3 regions will take part and that is a volunteered project manager. Decision on new Common Interest Groups will be taken during the spring best report december 25

11 The seminar 25 The annual seminar was hosted by our colleagues in, and conducted in the most modern and still growing part of the city Örestad. In the centre of the expanding Malmö region we spent 24 intense hours of lectures, discussions and collegial networking. The agenda contained presentations and discussions the results of the survey, the progress of ongoing Common Interest Groups and discussions on new themes for benchmarking. Implementations with good results concerning revenue protection in and the generally good progress of public transport in were presented. The City Network of and SAMOT the Excellence Center with focus on public transport were also presented. A lecture on The Role of Service Guarantees in Managing Services completed the programme. To be humble enough to admit that there is someone who is better and wise enough to learn how to improve to be as good, or even better. best report december 25 11

12 How to get more information Jorge Carles-Tolrá Alexander Fischer Anders Lausten Fabrice Etienne Seppo Vepsäläinen Tore Kåss Vladimir Mravec Bo Tengblad, Chairman of the organising committee Björn Dalborg, Project Manager Klaus bamberger More information on BEST is available on the web: best25.net 12 best report december 25 AB Storstockholms Lokaltrafik SE-12 8 Telephone sl.se