Evaluation of Transportation Service Quality of Metro Lines in Tehran by a Hybrid Approach Based on SERVQUAL and Fuzzy TOPSIS

Authors

1 MSc, Department of Industrial & Systems Engineering, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran

2 Associate Prof., Department of Industrial & Systems Engineering, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

Evaluation of the quality of urban transportation services is vital to improve productivity, profitability and customer satisfaction. All of the transportation organizations evaluate various parameters related to the quality of transportation services, such as performance, reliability, security, and convenience, on a regular basis. This evaluation can be done by customers, service personnel and transportation experts. Since the assessment of the quality of the metro lines has not been carried out in Iran by fuzzy MCDM method, in this paper, we present a hybrid approach for evaluating the service quality of metro lines in Tehran based on SERVQUAL and fuzzy TOPSIS. Our proposed approach consists of two steps. The first one involves development of a SERVQUAL based questionnaire to collect data for measuring transportation service quality and in the second step; fuzzy TOPSIS method is used to select the best alternative. Fuzzy TOPSIS generates an overall performance score for each alternative. The alternative with the highest score is finally chosen. The final ranking results show that the red metro line is the best of four metro lines in terms of service quality, followed by green line, yellow line and blue line.

Keywords

References

-غضنفری، م­ .(1389)، “نظریه مجموعه­های فازی”، دانشگاه علم و صنعت ایران.
 
-عطایی، م. (1389)،­“تصمیم­گیری چند معیاره فازی”، دانشگاه صنعتی شاهرود.
 
-Awasthi, A., Chauhan, S. S., Omrani, H., and Panahi, A. (2011), "A hybrid approach based on SERVQUAL and fuzzy TOPSIS for evaluating transportation service quality". Computers & Industrial Engineering, 61(3), pp. 637-646.
 
-Celik, E., Bilisik, O. N., Erdogan, M., Gumus, A. T., and Baracli, H. (2013), “An integrated novel interval type-2 fuzzy MCDM method to improve customer satisfaction in public transportation for Istanbul”, Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, 58,
pp. 28-51.
 
-Chow, C. K. W. (2014). "Customer satisfaction and service quality in the Chinese airline industr”, Journal of Air Transport Management, 35, pp. 102-107.
 
-Eboli, L., andMazzulla, G. (2009), "A new customer satisfaction index for evaluating transit service quality", Journal of Public Transportation, Vol. 12, NO. 3, pp. 21-37.
 
-Fick, G. R., & Ritchie, J. B. (1991), "­Measuring service quality in the travel and tourism industry", Journal of Travel Research, Vol. 30, NO.2, pp. 2-9.
 
-Kuo, M. S. (2011), “A novel interval-valued fuzzy MCDM method for improving airlines’ service quality in Chinese cross-strait airlines”. Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Vol. 47, No.6,
pp. 1177-1193.
 
-Liou, J. J., Hsu, C. C., & Chen, Y. S. (2014). “Improving transportation service quality based on information fusion.” Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, 67,
pp. 225-239.
 
-Liu, C. H., Tzeng, G. H., Lee, M. H., & Lee, P. Y. (2013), “Improving metro–airport connection service for tourism development: Using hybrid MCDM models”. Tourism Management Perspectives, 6, pp. 95-107.
 
-Liu, C. H., Tzeng, G. H., Lee, M. H., and Lee, P. Y. (2013), "­Improving metro–airport connection service for tourism development: Using hybrid MCDM models" Tourism Management Perspectives, 6, pp. 95-107.
 
-Munzilah, M. R., Wijeyesekera, D. C., and Ahmad Tarmizi, A. K. (2012), “Bus operation, quality service and the role of bus provider and driver”.
 
-Nathanail, E. (2008), “Measuring the quality of service for passengers on the hellenic railways”. Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Vol. 42, No.1, pp. 48-66.
 
-Parasuraman, A., Zeithaml, V. A., and Berry, L. L. (1994), " Alternative scales for measuring service quality: a comparative assessment based on psychometric and diagnostic criteria". Journal of retailing, Vol. 70, No.3, pp. 201-230.
 
-Shi, Y., & Yang, X. (2013), “The public transportation system of high quality in Taiwan.”,  In Autonomous Decentralized Systems (ISADS), 2013 IEEE Eleventh International Symposium on pp. 1-6. IEEE.
 
-Suki, N. M. (2014), “Passenger satisfaction with airline service quality in Malaysia: “A structural equation modeling approach”, Research in Transportation Business & Management, 10, pp. 26-32.
 
-Torlak, G., Sevkli, M., Sanal, M., & Zaim, S. (2011), “Analyzing business competition by using fuzzy TOPSIS method: An example of Turkish domestic airline industry.” Expert Systems with Applications, Vol.38, No.4,
pp. 3396-3406.
 
-Tsaur, S. H., Chang, T. Y., and Yen, C. H. (2002), "The evaluation of airline service quality by fuzzy MCDM". Tourism management, Vol. 23, No.2, pp. 107-115.
 
-Yeh, C. H., Deng, H., & Chang, Y. H. (2000),  "Fuzzy multicriteria analysis for performance evaluation of bus companies",  European Journal of Operational Research, Vol. 126, NO. 3, pp. 459-473.
 
-Zadeh, L. A. (1965), nxZ. “Information and Control”, 8, pp.­338-353.
Journal of Transportation Research
Volume 16, Issue 1
June 2019
Pages 73-86

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics