YOUNG PEOPLE'S OPINIONS ABOUT THE ELECTRONIC BUS FLEET SERVICES PROVIDED BY KARNATAKA GOVERNMENT IN TERMS OF ITS SERVICE EXCELLENCE TOWARDS ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY

Abstract

As urban areas progress towards implementing environmentally sustainable public transport systems, such as electrifying buses, the extent to which bus riders find these innovative solutions appealing remains to be investigated. We investigate young people's perceptions of Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) Electronic-Buses Fleet (EBFs) in Bangalore, India, which incorporate environmental sustainability into the bus service excellence measurement methodology. We collect data from young people aged 18 to 34 residing in Bangalore City through a standardized survey questionnaire. We adopt the covariance-based structural equation model (SEM) as our methodology. We examine the service excellence of EBFs as a contribution by employing contextually adapted evaluation methods based on the SERVQUAL paradigm. Presented herein is a 4-item assessment of the observed environmental sustainability of EBFs. Found that the reported environmental sustainability of EBFs, bus service supplier empathy, and physical aspects of EBFs possess a strong favourable relationship about passenger satisfaction. This satisfaction is favourably correlated with the living contentment of young people. Lastly, a post-hoc evaluation utilizing multi-group Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) demonstrates the fact cooler temperatures contribute to an increase in the perceived service efficacy of young people alongside bus operators, empathy for the bus service provider, along passenger satisfaction with EBFs.