Drivers of transit service loyalty considering heterogeneity between user segments

ABSTRACT

Users’ loyalty to public transit service is fundamental to promote its popularity in the transportation market. A four-step analytical framework is advanced to investigate the importance of service attributes that heterogeneous transit user segments place on their public transit service loyalty, measured in terms of overall satisfaction and re-use intention. Critical service attributes perceived by transit users that are relevant for loyalty enhancement are explicitly determined, which vary between user segments. It is suggested that the design of strategies aimed to promote the use of public transit by increasing user loyalty towards transit service be targeted at specific attributes that contribute most to loyalty and specific user segments whose original loyalty level is significantly different to others.

KEYWORDS:

• Transit service attributes
• loyalty
• ordered-probit model
• overall satisfaction
• re-use intention

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to express their appreciation to those who have provided suggestions and comments on this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This research is sponsored by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51278301).