1. Introduction
The rapid population growth and urban development in many cities worldwide has led to the massive urbanisation and intricate transformation of the urban landscape. This is one of the phenomena faced by the increasingly higher number of rural people migrating to urban areas in the pursuit of better employment and education opportunities; this has contributed to a higher degree of urban agglomeration. For instance, approximately 80% of the urban population in European countries is the result of the urbanisation phenomenon [
1]. The major impact of this phenomenon is a higher demand for transportation. In this regard, the provision of a proper public transport network is of critical importance to reduce dependence on motorised transport. Kwan et al. [
2] emphasised that an inadequate public transport network leads to the dependence of motorised transport for mobility. This has contributed to a number of social economic burdens, including massive traffic congestion, risks of road accidents, longer travel time, higher cost, and environmental problems such as air pollution and high carbon dioxide emissions [
2,
3,
4]. In addition, the use of motorised transport could have an adverse impact on human health due to air and noise pollution and the involuntary adoption of a sedentary lifestyle [
5,
6].
As one of the most developed countries in Southeast Asia, Malaysia experiences significant urbanisation and urban agglomeration. The rate of urbanisation in Malaysia is projected to be about 70% in the year 2020 [
7]. Kuala Lumpur is one of the cities in Malaysia experiencing a rapidly expanding metropolitan area and massive urban development. Ranked as an alpha (an alpha level city is a city that serves the main node in the global economic network) world city, Kuala Lumpur is the financial, cultural and economic centre of the country and is one of three Malaysian Federal Territories [
8]. Kuala Lumpur has a very high population density of 6891 people/km
2. The population of Kuala Lumpur in 2016 is 1.76 million, and by the year 2020 Kuala Lumpur is expected to have a population of 2.2 million [
8,
9]. In its role as an alpha and capital city, Kuala Lumpur is the centre for several activities such as high technology development, education-training, commercial and financial, international business and trade, and others, all of which influence the number of trips made within the city area. Trips in the Kuala Lumpur area are made using private motorised transport such as cars and motorcycles. Chuen et al. [
10] and Kwan et al. [
2] found that only 17% (1.24 million) of the trip in Kuala Lumpur are made by public transport, and 83% (6 million) of the trips are made by private motorised transport. In addition, Mohamad and Kiggudu [
11] reported that 70% of the vehicles plying the major roads during the morning rush hour are single-occupancy vehicles. These evidences proved that the commuting methods used by the residents of Kuala Lumpur are extremely inefficient. This has contributed to the negative effects of the dependence on private motor vehicles discussed in previous works [
10,
11,
12,
13].
A large amount of transport literature has contended that public transport is a vital element in the global effort to promote sustainable transport [
2,
13,
14]. This endeavour could reduce the dependency on private transport and promote the use of sustainable transport; in Kuala Lumpur, for instance, the rail transit service provides an efficient, reliable, affordable and eco-friendly travel alternative. However, according to Masirin et al. [
15], the ridership for the rail transit in Kuala Lumpur is still low, even though the government has been making a large investment to encourage the use of rail transit and increase the ridership of rail transit in the past few decades. Similarly, Zulkifli et al. [
16] and Ibrahim et al. [
17] reported that one of the most serious concerns in Asian transport literature is the low ridership of rail transit. The low ridership of rail transit in Kuala Lumpur is similar with the low rate of public transport usage reported in many other parts on the globe [
13,
18]. Generally, the poor public transport usage is due to the convenience of using private transport, including better flexibility, comfort, privacy and speed, compared to the utilisation of public transport [
1,
19].
According to Kwan et al. [
2], one reason for the low intention to use the railway for commuting in Kuala Lumpur is because the rail transit network only connects 10–20% of the urban area. In addition, several studies have reported that the reason for the lack of enthusiasm to use rail transit is the failure to provide the level of quality service expected by the passengers [
13,
20,
21]. This has caused dissatisfaction with the service provided. According to Shen et al. [
22], passengers who are not satisfied with the public transport service would not be loyal to the service and would not recommend it to others. Numerous studies have investigated passengers’ satisfaction with rail transit [
22,
23,
24] and reported that passengers’ satisfaction with the service provided is a primary factor influencing their decision to use and promote the railway service to others in the future. Thus, the provision of a high-quality service that meets passengers’ expectations would result in passenger satisfaction, which in turn ensures passenger retention and attracts potential passengers to use the service.
As has been pointed out in the various marketing and transport literature, an indicator of a successful public transport service which ensures the ability to survive in the transport market and the ability to compete with other forms of travel mode is the number of passengers that the system is able to retain and attract [
22,
25]. Thus, there is a critical need for the authorities and rail transit service providers to determine whether the services provided adequately satisfy passengers’ needs and satisfaction. In addition, the factors which influence passengers’ satisfaction with rail transit have to be established to enable researchers, policy makers, engineers, service providers and the authorities to formulate strategic measures which would enhance passengers’ satisfaction with rail transit and thus increase ridership. Therefore, this paper attempts to investigate the factors influencing the satisfaction of rail transit passengers based on the evidence from the light rail transit (LRT) in Kuala Lumpur. The covariance-based structural equation model (CB-SEM) approach is used to assess the relationship between the constructs, namely passenger expectation, perceived quality, perceived value and passengers’ satisfaction with the LRT service. There are several advantages offered by this approach. In a statistic point of view, SEM is an advanced linear model approach which involves the multiple regression analysis to investigate the consistency of the hypothesised model with the data collected [
26]. Additionally, Williams et al. [
27] stated that SEM is a multivariate analytical method employed to assess and evaluate the complex causal relationship between constructs, even when the relationship is hypothetical direct or not directly observable. In general, the SEM approach is popular and is preferred in social science and management studies because it can assess the measurement model and structural path efficiently, especially when the structural model consists of multiple dependent variables, latent constructs based on multi-item indicator variables, and multiple stages/levels of constructs in a structural model [
28]. Due to its robustness, the SEM approach has gained attention in the transportation sector. The present study hopes to provide useful information that would help service providers, authorities, policy makers, planners and researchers formulate effective strategies to increase the use of rail transit, especially in Kuala Lumpur, and in other alpha and metropolitan cities in general.
The rest of the paper is organised as follows.
Section 2 discusses the reviewed literature and hypothesis development.
Section 3 describes the adopted methodology.
Section 4 presents and analyses the results of the study, and
Section 5 explains their implications.
Section 6 draws the conclusion from the present study.
3. Methodology
This paper considers the light rail transit (LRT) system in Kuala Lumpur as a case study.
Figure 2 shows the LRT system, which comprises three lines; the Ampang Line spans 18 km and has 18 stations, the Sri Petaling Line spans 45.1 km long and has 29 stations, and the Kelana Jaya Line spans 46.4 km and has 37 stations [
59].
Table 1 shows the instrument employed in this study. The study instrument is adopted and modified from earlier studies and has been back-translated into Malay. Prior to the final data collection, the questionnaire was administered on 50 randomly selected respondents in Bandar Baru Bangi, Selangor as a pilot test. The pilot test evaluates any weakness in the designed instrument and helps the researchers improve the questionnaire before administrating the actual survey [
3]. Based on the feedback from the respondents of the pilot test, several questions were omitted from the questionnaire because the participants did not answer them or the answers were erroneous. Other questions were modified to improve clarity and reliability.
Table 1 shows the results of the reliability analysis of the pilot study. The questionnaire used in the final data collection in this study consists of two main sections: (i)
Section 1: Respondents’ demographic characteristics, and (ii)
Section 2: LRT passengers’ satisfaction evaluation, as presented in
Appendix A. The five-point Likert scale for measuring the questions in
Section 2 ranges from 1 = Strongly disagree to 5 = Strongly agree. A high score indicates a higher interest in a measure.
In this study, the cross-sectional questionnaire survey was administered at two major stations which have the highest number of passengers, namely Kuala Lumpur Central and Terminal Bersepadu Selatan (TBS), on the basis of convenience sampling. Prior to administering the survey, the enumerators were given a simple briefing regarding the purpose of the survey and the potential respondents were asked about their willingness to participate in the survey. The questionnaire was distributed only to those willing to participate in the survey to ensure they gave an accurate and reliable response to all items in the questionnaire. This approach would increase the response rate of the survey [
60]. The interview was face-to-face, and the respondents were given a small token of appreciation at the end of the 10–15 min survey. Five hundred self-administrated questionnaires were administered between 20 September 2019 and 10 December 2019. Eighty-three questionnaires were eliminated because of invalid or/and incomplete responses, and 417 of the questionnaires were considered for further analysis, giving an effective response rate of 83.40%. The data were analysed using IBM SPSS Statistics version 24.0 and IBM SPSS Analysis of Moment Structure (Amos) version 24.0. This study includes respondents’ demographic characteristics and the measurement and structural model as a part of the systematic procedure for data analysis.
6. Conclusions
This study has demonstrated the impact of passenger expectation, perceived quality and perceived value towards passengers’ satisfaction with the light rail transit (LRT) service. Based on the author’s knowledge, this is the very first study to assess the relationship of these determinants (passenger expectation, perceived quality and perceived value) in the context of rail transit, particularly LRT, in an alpha city in the Southeast Asia region. In summary, the findings of this study indicate that passenger expectation, perceived quality and perceived value have a considerable influence on enhancing the satisfaction level of LRT passengers. These findings can contribute to the improvement of both theoretical and managerial aspects. In terms of the theoretical aspect, this study has contributed to the enhancement of the fundamental knowledge related to the factors that influence passengers’ satisfaction with the LRT service by assessing the complex relationship of the four constructs of the proposed model. Thus, the findings of this study have contributed important information to the transport literature. With regard to the managerial aspect, the results showed that the weight of the constructs influenced passenger satisfaction. This is crucial in helping service providers, authorities, policy makers, planners and researchers formulate effective strategies to increase the use of rail transit, specifically in Kuala Lumpur and in other alpha and metropolitan cities generally.