International Journal of Engineering and Advanced Technology (IJEAT) ISSN: 2249 – 8958, Volume-8 Issue-4S, April 2019 79 Published By: Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering and Sciences Publication Retrieval Number: D10110484S19/2019©BEIESP DOI: 10.35940/ijeat.D1011.0484S19 Passengers Perception of Service Providers at Railway Platforms in India: A Comparative Analysis Mohit Kumar Ojha, Himani Upreti, Rupa Khanna Malhotra, Oshin Parasar Abstract: The study is an attempt to measure satisfaction level of passengers for different platform-based amenities and service providers at railway platforms in India. The study is conducted at Allahabad Junction Railway Station, one of the busiest station in North Central Railway (NCR) Zone of Indian Railways. Study tried to compare the performance of service providers based on whether private vendor and railway operated ones. For the purpose a total of 23 amenities in five categories have been selected for the study.Diagnostic research adopting observation and survey method using questionnaire technique was used. Mean and standard deviation has been calculated to measure the level of performance of various service providers while gap analysis is used to compare their relative performance. Overall it is concluded that Book stalls, drinking water and other facilities like reservation display boards and so on provide maximum satisfaction, while, personal hygiene has least satisfaction level. Satisfaction level is high for services provided private operators as compared to those provided by Indian Railways. Key Words: Platform-Based Amenities, Satisfaction Level, Indian Railway, Allahabad Junction, Gap Analysis I. INTRODUCTION Service has attained huge importance in today’s economy and is justified by the emergence of the term ‘economy of services’ (Urban, 2010). Service organizations have to understand the expectations of its customers and fulfill those expectations by providing quality services (Parasuraman, Zethaml and Berry, 1988). Satisfaction can be expressed as matching of customer’s service expectation and actual service delivery. It can be referred to as the result of individual service transaction and complete service encounter (Johnston, 1995). As per Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) Report 100, quality of service reflects the passenger’s perception of transit performance; Givoni and Rietveld (2007) opine that quality of stations has a positive impact on the overall perception of passengers for rail journey. Indian Railways has a country wide network and is a major service provider of the country and to combat the onslaught from air and road transport, railway is mulling multiple innovations. Revised Manuscript Received on April 25, 2019. Dr. Mohit Kumar Ojha*, Assistant Professor, Graphic Era Deemed to be University, Dehradun, India. E-mail: dr.mohitojha@gmail.com Ms. Himani Upreti, Assistant Professor, Graphic Era Deemed to be University, Dehradun, India. Dr. Rupa Khanna Malhotra, Professor, Graphic Era Deemed to be University, Dehradun, India. Oshin Parasar, Assistant Professor, Graphic Era Hill University, Dehradun, India. In this regard, it is pertinent to measure the quality of service deliver at railway platforms of Indian Railways. In this direction, present study is an attempt to assess the level of service delivery and performance of different service providers at one of the busiest railway station in India, namely, Allahabad Junction in the North Central Railway (NCR) Zone of Indian Railways. II. THEATRICAL BACKGROUND Several studies have been done in national and international context covering various aspects of railways considering the generic dimensions of service quality like refreshment, security, ambiance, information provision, behavioural aspects, and so on; a few studies have also studied services at railway platforms. TCRP Report 100 (2000) identifies eight categories to measure service quality namely availability of transit service, service monitoring, community, travel time, safety and security, maintenance and construction, economy and capacity. Doi et al. (2003) have studied Metro Rail Transit 3 (MRT3) stations of Metro Manila, Philippines to identify the cause of low ridership from the point of view of accessibility and intermodality. Geetika and Nandan (2010) identified 16 factors to measure passenger satisfaction. They found out that quality of refreshments and behavior of staff, were most important for customer satisfaction at railway platforms. A report by The Gallup Organization (2011) identified dimensions of ease of buying tickets, provision of information about train schedules/platform and personal security as major factors for satisfaction, and lack facilities for car parking, quality of facilities and services and cleanliness/good maintenance of station facilities were major dissatisfaction. Gupta and Datta (2012) have considered attributes of accessibility, extent of waiting, information availability, passenger amenities, security and travel related facilities. As shown by the results extent of waiting, security and travel related facilities are the attributes with which passengers were most dissatisfied. Vishnuvarthani & Selvaraj (2012) in their study of Salem Division of Southern Railway, India concluded that majority of sample passengers were unaware or have low level of awareness about the services provided by railways and at the same time around 83.8 per cent of the sample passengers were dissatisfied with the services provided at the railway platforms. Result also shows that there is a positive correlation between the awareness factors and satisfaction factors.