LINGAYAS UNIVERSITY

FARIDABAD.INDIA

CASE STUDY

Satisfaction and Service Quality in Indian Railways

- A Study on Passenger Perspective

SAURAV SAHU
11CE015
B.Tech (Civil)
MAY.2015

LINGAYAS UNIVERSITY
FARIDABAD-121001
INDIA

Satisfaction and Service Quality in Indian Railways

LINGAYAS UNIVERSITY
FARIDABAD.INDIA

CASE STUDY

FARIDABAD

CERTIFICATE
This is to certify that the case study titled as Satisfaction and Service Quality in Indian Railways
- A Study on Passenger Perspective. Submitted to the LINGAYAS UNIVERSITY,
FARIDABAD, Roll No. 11CE015 for the award of the degree of Technology in Civil
Engineering, is a bonafide record of research work carried out by him under my supervision and
guidance. The Candidate has fulfilled all the prescribed requirements. The report, which is based
on candidates own work, has not been submitted elsewhere for a degree/diploma.

SAURAV SAHU(11CE015)

Mrs. VIDHI TIWARI

(Asst. Proff.)
Department of Civil Engineering

Date: MAY. 2015

Place: Faridabad

Satisfaction and Service Quality in Indian Railways

LINGAYAS UNIVERSITY, FARIDABAD

FARIDABAD 121001

LINGAYAS UNIVERSITY
FARIDABAD.INDIA

CASE STUDY

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This paper is intent to measure the service quality of Indian Railway

I would like to extend my gratitude and my sincere thanks to my honorable, esteemed supervisor
Mrs. Vidhi Tiwari(Asst. Prof.),Department of Civil Engineering.
I sincerely thank for her exemplary guidance and encouragement. Her trust and support inspired me
in the most important moments of making right decisions and I am glad to work with her/

All faculty of Department of Civil Engineering. Rendered me enormous support during the whole
tenure of my stay in Lingayas University, Faridabad.

SAURAV SAHU

Satisfaction and Service Quality in Indian Railways

LINGAYAS UNIVERSITY
FARIDABAD.INDIA

CASE STUDY

ABSTRACT

Indian Railways serves the passengers in a big way, and hence there is a need to integrate passenger
concerns in the operation, planning and other processes that impact passenger services and its quality in
bigger way. A study of the service quality address passenger concerns more effectively and at the same
time it also effectively monitor the creation and maintenance of a good quality services. By using nonprobability convenience sampling a survey of 200 passengers of Indian Railway in Faridabad was carried
out using a structured questionnaire. This paper is intent to measure the service quality of Indian
Railway.

Customer satisfaction and retention is one of the key determinants to measure the quality of products
or services and hence the Indian Railway performance. Due to the growing importance of quality in our
life, customers desire to enjoy a relatively better quality of products or availing superior quality services
has been increased. India is the Second highly populated country of the world and its rapid population
growth also contributes to an increase of peoples travelling demands. In Indian Passenger trains is the
cheapest and comfortable mode of travelling especially for long distances. This paper aims to investigate
the passengers perceptions about the service quality of rail transport system in Indian Railways while
travelling between the major cities especially from Kerala to Delhi, Mumbai and Delhi. A modified
SERVQUAL instrument including eight service quality constructs: Reliability, assurance, tangibles,
timeliness, responsiveness, information system, empathy, food and safety and security were employed
to measure the passengers perceptions about the service quality of railways. Out of 500 respondents,
only 442 were selected and these respondents were frequent railway traveller on these routes. Results
indicate that passengers perceive that quality of services delivered to them is not satisfactory.

Key words: Service quality, satisfaction of Passenger

Satisfaction and Service Quality in Indian Railways

LINGAYAS UNIVERSITY
FARIDABAD.INDIA

CASE STUDY

A)-Introduction
Organizations and companies succeed, or fail, based on the quality and effectiveness of their employees.
Todays successful firms recognize that to compete in global markets, they must have world class
Human Resource managers who are active participants in strategic and operational decision. Whether
they are reengineering the pay and benefits of the company or implementing Total Quality Management
(TQM) programs, Human Resources Managers play a central role. Most importantly, the practice of
Human Resource Management is undergoing a technological revolution. We speak now of managing not
only human resources and capital, but also information and information systems. HR functions, from
employee selection to benefits planning, are being redesigned to take advantage of advanced
information technology. Quality is one of the key parameters in order measure the performance of the
products or services and even it is one primary indicator to organizational performance. It is meant to
help the organization train, motivate and reward workers. It is also meant to ensure that the
organizational goals are met with efficiency. The process not only includes the employees but can also
be for a department, product, service or customer process; all towards enhancing or adding value to
them. Nowadays there is an automated performance management system (PMS) that carries all the
information to help managers evaluate the performance of the employees and assess them accordingly
on their training and development needs. Earlier quality was considered only for the manufacturing
sector but during the last couple of decades there is a tremendous growth in service sector around the
globe and concept of quality has arisen in this sector. It is evident from the literature that now service
sector has become one of the fastest growing sectors in global economy and the major reason is that
now the American economy has become a service economy.
Service sector is growing in almost all the economies of the world and the similar growth trend can also
be seen in the India. According to Indian Railways [3](2010-11), 25 % of the GDP is contributed by
service sector (24.3%). Service sector has realized that service quality is the main source of gaining
competitiveness and remains successful in the market and many other researchers had emphasized
that quality initiatives in the service sector had resulted in gaining sustainable competitive advantages.
According to , it is evident from the EBSCO academic electronic database that only 15 studies had been
conducted during 1989 to 1991 and 198 studies were conducted during 1997-1999 and 138 studies
through 1999-2001, which indicates that concept of service quality has been increasingly important
topic for the service industry. Hence, service quality is a subject that gains considerable interest of both
the academicians and the service providers. Now the Service organizations had started putting their
maximum effort towards customer-focused services and thus continuous performance improvement.

Satisfaction and Service Quality in Indian Railways

LINGAYAS UNIVERSITY
FARIDABAD.INDIA

CASE STUDY

B)-AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

The study aims to identify factors which the Indian Railway provided for the passengers in train. Hence
the basic objective of this study is to identify the factors determining the service quality of the Indian
Railways in train service that lead to the customer satisfaction. The customer satisfaction has been
commonly accepted as indicator of the service.

C)-Customer Satisfaction
Customer satisfaction is the key factor determining how successful the organization will be in customer
relationships; therefore it is very important to measure it. There are two principle interpretations of
satisfaction, within the literature of satisfaction as a process and satisfaction as an outcome [3]. Early
concepts of satisfaction research have typically defined satisfaction as a post choice evaluative judgment
concerning a specific purchase decisions.

Definition of Service Quality

Some important definitions of service quality as defined by the researchers until now are
Service quality is determined by the differences between customers expectations of services
providers performance and their evaluation of the services they received .
Service quality can be defined as the difference between customers expectations for service
performance prior to the service encounter and their perceptions of the service received .
The Service quality is the subjective comparison that customers make between the quality of
the service that they want to receive and what they actually get

Satisfaction and Service Quality in Indian Railways

LINGAYAS UNIVERSITY
FARIDABAD.INDIA

CASE STUDY

D)-RESEARCH METHODOLOGY (Objectives)

To identify factors of service quality offer by Indian Railway To study the difference in
perception of customer towards the service quality of Indian Railway based on demographic
variables.

In this study, questionnaire included 15 variable to measure the in train passenger satisfaction
from the service quality provide by the Indian Railways. They are follows.

Availability of Seats
Drinking Water
Power Supply
Sanitation Quality
Neatness of Compartment
Presence of Creatures & Insects Self Safety
Safety of Belongings
Affordability
Quality
Medical Service
Availability of Doctors
Right-time Service
Information Accessibility
Behavior of Staff
Behavior of co-passengers

Satisfaction and Service Quality in Indian Railways

LINGAYAS UNIVERSITY
FARIDABAD.INDIA

CASE STUDY

E)-CUSTOMER SATISFACTION MODEL

Based on the statistical methods of factor analysis a model of passenger satisfaction in train is proposed.
In this model, customer satisfaction is dependent variable and the five factors- basic facilities, hygiene,
catering, health care, punctuality are independent variables

Satisfaction and Service Quality in Indian Railways

LINGAYAS UNIVERSITY
FARIDABAD.INDIA

CASE STUDY

F)-RESULTS OF THE STUDY

Basic facilities: the result provided from the statistical analysis supported that the determinant
of safety and security is most important factor to determine the satisfaction of the customer.
(The variables are Availability of seats, Drinking water and Power supply).
Hygiene in the train is second important factor came under the satisfaction level of the
customer.(This includes sanitation quality, neatness of compartment and presence of creatures
and insects).
Behavior towards passengers is least important factor to determine the satisfaction level of the
customers (passengers)
A passenger (customer) satisfaction model could be availed on the basis of factor analysis.

G)-SUGGESTIONS

Comprehensive attempt to implement the qualified services to the customers.

Implement effective and far reaching service quality model.
Focus on vital service quality factors like Basic facilities, Hygiene and Safety- Security, which are
considered paramount factors as far as concerned to the in train passengers.
Since the basic facilities and hygiene are important factors to determine the satisfaction of the
customers, the Railways are to pay more attention to provide such services.
The designed satisfaction model can be either developed or to be modified so as to ensure
better and qualified services and overall satisfaction to the customers (Passengers) while in the
train journey.
A comprehensive study with an attempt to collect the factors along with all relevant variables so
as to get the overall satisfaction level of the customers on service quality.

Satisfaction and Service Quality in Indian Railways

LINGAYAS UNIVERSITY
FARIDABAD.INDIA

CASE STUDY

H)-LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

The factors determine the satisfaction of passengers on Railways service quality is large in number. In
this sense, the selection of limited variables in this study not at all ensures comprehensive result
towards the satisfaction of the passengers.

I)-CONCLUSION

The empirical nature of this study is really a contribution to identify the factors that determine
passenger satisfaction in train with service quality of services provided by the Indian Railways. The
determinants that mostly affect the satisfaction of passengers (customers) in rank order is Basic
facilities, Hygiene, Safety & Security, Catering, Health Care Service, Punctuality, and lastly and the least
important factor is Behavior towards Passengers. The Indian Rail transportation is gaining importance
day by day. With the increase of passengers, the Indian Railways has focused to extend its attention to
satisfy the needs of customers and made initiatives to improve the quality of service to enrich the
satisfaction of customers. Even though repeated attempt made by the Railways to improve the quality
of services, the result would not satisfied the customers (passengers) needs. This reveals that,
continuous, comprehensive, lengthy intentional performance and attempts are essential to solve these
problems. Accordingly, the researcher gives some insights to develop and improve the quality of services
to satisfy the passengers in train.

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Satisfaction and Service Quality in Indian Railways

LINGAYAS UNIVERSITY
FARIDABAD.INDIA

CASE STUDY

J)-REFERENCES

Amba Prasad, Indian Railways- A study of Public Utility Administration, Asia

Publishing House, Bombay, 1960.
South Central Railway General Managers Annual Report 1998-99.
Ministry of Railways, Indian Railways yearbook 1989-90 to 1999-2000.
Jagit Singh, The Story of our Railways, National Book Trust of India, New Delhi,
1989.
Kosteck M.M.(ed.), Marketing Strategies for services ,Oxford: Pergmon Press, 1994.
Krishna Mohan V., Services Marketing A study of Marketing Operations of Indian
Railways, Ph.D. Thesis, Andhra University, Waltam, 1992.
www.http://cris.org
www.irctctourism.com/egi-bin/dev1.dll/irctic/services/vatServicesNTerms.do

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Satisfaction and Service Quality in Indian Railways