Transit customer satisfaction remains strong, survey says

Metro Transit customers continue to have a high satisfaction level with bus and light-rail service.

That’s the clear message from a survey the agency conducted this past fall to gauge satisfaction, determine riding patterns and identify what enhancements are most important to customers.

Customer satisfaction is up on both bus and train service. Ninety-four percent of bus customers said they are satisfied with overall service, up from 90 percent in 2005. Ninety-six percent of rail customers said they are satisfied with overall service, compared with 93 percent in 2005.

“We’ve put an even stronger emphasis on customer service in the last year, and our riders are noticing the results,” said Mary Hill Smith, chair of the Metropolitan Council’s Transportation Committee. “We’re committed to ensuring that riding bus and rail is a positive experience.”

The survey also suggested that if it were not for buses and light rail, the region’s roads and highways would be more congested. Half of train customers and more than one-third of bus customers said they would drive alone if transit were not available.

Metro Transit conducts the research to measure system-wide customer service and satisfaction levels. The latest survey represents the twelfth wave of research on buses and the third for light rail.

Parking costs send many to transit

When asked the one main reason customers use transit, train riders most often cited convenience or to save money on parking (both rated at 26 percent). For bus riders, 36 percent said that not owning a car was their top reason, a 5 percent increase from 2005. The next most popular reason was to save money on parking, coming in at 17 percent.

Half of all rail riders surveyed said they would get to their destination by driving alone were it not for the train.

Most transit riders are headed to or from work: 69 percent of rail riders and 65 percent of bus riders cited work as the primary purpose of their trip. School was the second-most frequent trip purpose for bus riders, at 14 percent; for rail riders, it was social or entertainment, at 10 percent.

More than half of the bus riders surveyed said they have been using transit for more than five years, while more than a third of those surveyed on the train said the same.

Results from the survey provide new insights into bus customers who are students. Fourteen percent of all bus riders said they were taking transit to get to school; 11 percent said school helped influence their decision to first try transit. When ages and the length of transit use were compared, the largest share of new ridership was in the 18- to 24-year-old range. The 18-to-24 age group represents 19 percent of all bus riders.

In terms of income, 49 percent of the light-rail customers said they had a total annual family income below $50,000. In comparison, 66 percent of bus customers said that they had a total family income in that range. Seventeen percent of rail riders said their annual family income is more than $100,000; nine percent of bus riders had an income in that range.

Convenience and saving money on parking motivate many people to ride light rail; for bus customers, the top reason for riding is lack of a car.

How the survey was conducted

Surveys were completed on paper or online by 6,592 bus riders and 1,598 train riders in late October 2006. The surveys were administered using a probability sampling technique, with each customer having a unique chance of being selected for participation. For the train component of the survey, packets were distributed at 15 separate stations as customers waited for trains. On the bus side, a random sampling of all trips was selected. The response rate for the bus customer survey was 33 percent; for the rail survey, it was 18 percent.