PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF INTERMEDIATE PUBLIC TRANSPORT: A CASE STUDY

Intermediate Public Transport (IPT) acts as a feeder to mass transit system in large cities and as a primary mode of public transport in small and medium cities. In urban area IPT helps in improving the mobility, but uncontrolled growth of IPT results in reduced air quality and safety due to increased traffic congestion. An effective management of IPT helps in sustainable urban transport. For effective management, the performance should be evaluated by considering the system perception, city perception, passenger perception and their level of satisfaction. In this study, an attempt has been made to measure the performance of IPT in Guwahati, India, based on seven Key Performance Indicators (KPI) using Benchmarking. Performance of these KPIs is reported through a Level of Service (LOS) scale ranging from LOS 1 to LOS 4 depicting best to worst service quality. It has been found that IPT of Guwahati have better travel speed and comfort with LOS 1. The performance areas that need to be improved are average waiting time, extent of supply and GPS for IPT which attain service levels of LOS 3, LOS 4, and LOS 4. The service levels of vehicle occupancy and safety are found to be satisfactory with service level of LOS 2.