By Ariani Mohd Nor
GOMBAK, 28 September 2018 “ The need for usage of public transport, specifically the Light Rail Transit (LRT) around Kuala Lumpur city and its vicinity, is bound to increase by 2030 due to growing urbanism that have led to greater demand and need of the public transport.
Corporate Communication postgraduate students from Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), led by Theresa Shalini Stephen, have made it their mission to get more Malaysians to use public transport with the ongoing growth of urban population.
Among factors that led Theresa Shalini and her members to proceed with this research are those in relation to customer satisfaction towards LRT, people who prefer to drive their own private cars for comfort, which has led to traffic congestion, as well as the amount of time wasted sitting during traffic jam.
œThe fact is that on estimate, Malaysians spent RM16,000 per year on traffic and parking costs, she added. œSo not only that they have to worry about limited parking space, but also they have to deal with the cost of parking tickets as well.
The study was conducted to determine the correlation between safety, convenience, accessibility and affordability factors with customer satisfaction towards the LRT system in Kuala Lumpur.
Based on the research that uses a sample of 200 LRT users – most of them are working at private sector organisations and staying or working around Klang Valley – the main influencing factor for customers using LRT is safety consideration.
The results of their research also shows that users expect Prasarana Malaysia Bhd to improve their services by providing Wi-Fi in their LRT coaches and wish that they would reward their loyal public transport users.
Theresa Shalini Stephen was one of the panelists at the International Seminar on Media and Communication (ISMEC) 2018 parallel session held at the Kulliyyah of Information and Communication Technology (KICT) on Tuesday (25 September).
She also stated that the findings of their research will hopefully be used to find out how to influence consumers to use LRT more frequently.***