Measuring service quality of Indian Rail passenger services using RAILQUAL model (A study of South Central Railways)

Measurement of service quality and its subsequent management is of utmost importance for any organization to be competitive and successful in business. Indian Railway (IR) passenger services are facing such a competition from roadways and low cost Airlines. Customer satisfaction is what guarantees the future of Indian Railways and it is achievable only by matching the Rail passenger´s needs with the services. The purpose of this study is to provide a better understanding of the satisfaction level among passengers with specific emphasis to the South Central Railways (SCR) segment of Indian Railways. We have developed RAILQUAL instrument with modified attributes from SERVQUAL for this study. The inference from our study is that reliability, tangibles and assurance (in the order of decreasing importance) are important predictors of overall service quality, whereas responsiveness and empathy are not significant predictors.