Browsing by Author "Danthanarayana, CT"

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item: Conference-Extended-Abstract
Assessment of passenger satisfaction with semi-luxury bus service: Panadura-Kandy (17) route
(Sri Lanka Society of Transport and Logistics, 2018-06) Danthanarayana, CT; Gunaruwan, TL
item: Conference-Abstract
Factors improving bus transferability as the choice-mode of passengers at Bambalapitiya railway station
(Sri Lanka Society of Transport and Logistics, 2020-11) Danthanarayana, CT; Welarathna, WGHA; Gunaruwan, TL
Bus transit is one of the main transfer modes which facilitate an efficient integrated transport system by increasing economic and social benefits. Inadequacy and inefficiency of prevailing public bus transport as a mode of transferring at railway stations has led passengers to switch to various other means to reach their destinations. This has led to increased traffic congestion mainly on urban roads at heavy economic cost to society. Improving bus transferability is crucial to enhancing bus-rail integration efficiently and effectively, while providing quality services fulfilling user requirements. In the Sri Lankan context, research identifying determinants of transfer mode choice for improving bus transferability or rail-bus integration is deficient. Hence, determining the factors underlying transfer mode choice is imperative to upgrading the prevailing transfer bus services at railway stations whereas introducing new transfer services. The main objective of this study is to identify the factors influential to the improvement of bus transferability at the Bambalapitiya Railway station. Accordingly, the main motivation of this study is to determine which attributes of the public bus service inclines people to use it as their transfer mode and to identify the user needs to be met by prevailing transfer bus services. The study is based on primary data collected from passengers who do not use public bus transport as their current transfer mode. A structured questionnaire with a five-point Likert scaling was used to ascertain passengers’ experience and opinions who had different mode choices. Data analysis is based on the evaluation of passenger satisfaction with service quality. Factor analysis and descriptive statistical analysis were used to identify the factors underlying improved bus transferability. The study mainly considered sixteen attributes of quality: accessibility, waiting time, cleanliness of the bus stop, facilities of the bus stop, loading level, safety of driving, traffic conflict, harassments, curtsey of bus crew, bus route coverage, bus frequency, availability, bus quality, privacy, cleanliness and travel time that affect transfer mode choice. The findings of the descriptive analysis clearly showed a high loading level and increased travel time as crucial factors for not using the existing transfer bus service. As per the results of factor analysis, the six main groups which loaded the sixteen factors are network design, convenience, and safety, quality of buses, background factors, and time consumption. According to the factor extraction, passengers are more concerned about network design which comprises bus route coverage avoiding transfers, availability of service to their destination and frequency of connections aligning with the arrival time of trains. Prioritizing the deployment of additional buses during peak hours, introduction of new bus services with integrated time scheduling and the assurance of quality, efficient service is imperative to enhancing bus transferability at the railway station. The study gives a reasonable path ahead to transport decision-makers, planners, and managers to configure policies that will ensure more effective bus transferability for existing bus users and attract new passengers through an efficient rail-bus integration.
item: Thesis-Abstract
Formulation of database & performance indicators for land passenger transport in Sri Lanka
(2015-01-07) Danthanarayana, CT; Kumarage, AS
Statistical information on transport activities serve an important role for transport related decision making. As such many developed countries maintain common transport databases to store transport data in different transport related organization. These data are important to understand the changes of transport variables and to evaluate transport benefits and impacts. However responsible bodies for collection of data, storage and analysis have not been established in Sri Lanka and this is a common issue for all transport authorities and other transport related institutions, organizations for planning transport related projects and policy decision making. Due to lack of transport databases, performance indicators are not used for proper evaluation and planning. Formulations of transport databases and Performance Indicators minimize the deficiencies in transport sector directing transport regulators and planners to get remedies for the existing issues. The main objective of this study is to identify different types of Key Performance Indicators (KPI) which are applicable to measure key aspects of performance in Land Passenger Transport Sector such as quality, efficiency, safety etc. Outcome of this study is to provide an initiative to formulate common transport data base and KPIs in order to evaluate the Land Passenger Transport in Sri Lanka. This study reflects a brief analysis of performance in Land Passenger Transport Sector. This performance evaluation is carried out by means of KPIs derived on available transport variables in different transport organizations. Key observations of this study reveal that formulation of KPIs with a special emphasis on sectoral performance and user perspectives is essential to address the existing Land Transport issues. Improving a proper mechanism is needed to collect necessary data from relevant institutions in order to formulate above KPIs. In addition establishment of a responsible body for transport data collection is essential to formulate a common transport data base.