Int. J. Services and Operations Management, Vol. 27, No. 2, 2017 145 Copyright © 2017 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. RAILQUAL: a multiple item scale for evaluating railway passenger service quality and satisfaction Devi Prasad Maruvada* and Raja Shekhar Bellamkonda School of Management Studies, University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad – 500046, India Email: mdprasad1967@gmail.com Email: b_rajashekhar@ yahoo.com *Corresponding author Abstract: It was found that leading models and instruments in the area of service quality tend to be based on exploratory factor analysis and have not been informed by advances in measurement theory, particularly co-variance-based structural equation models. The diverse nature of requirements of stake holders in railways makes it extremely difficult to decide upon what constitutes quality in railway passenger services. Hence, identification of common minimum quality items suitable for all passengers will help design the system and there by improve passenger satisfaction. To address this issue, we applied the recent advances in measurement theory to the dataset and compared two different modelling methods namely exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis. Based on the psychometric scale development approaches, this research conceptualised, constructed, refined, and tested a multi-item scale ‘RAILQUAL’ that examined key factors influencing railway passenger service quality. Through qualitative and quantitative studies in three phases a 18-item, six-dimensional ‘RAILQUAL’ model was developed. RAILQUAL is a measuring instrument for service quality and passenger satisfaction in Indian railways which can be applied across other railways also worldwide with some minor modifications locally. Keywords: RAILQUAL; railway passenger services; structural equation modelling; SEM; service quality. Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Maruvada, D.P. and Bellamkonda, R.S. (2017) ‘RAILQUAL: a multiple item scale for evaluating railway passenger service quality and satisfaction’, Int. J. Services and Operations Management, Vol. 27, No. 2, pp.145–166. Biographical notes: Devi Prasad Maruvada received his PhD from the School of Management Studies, University of Hyderabad, India. He is a post graduate in Management and also post graduate in Computer Applications. He has published many papers in peer reviewed International Management Journals and conferences. Raja Shekhar Bellamkonda is presently a Professor and the Dean at the School of Management Studies, University of Hyderabad. He received his PhD from the Kakatiya University, India. He has published close to 70 papers in national and international journals and conferences. He has authored three books. He has guided eight PhD scholars and nine scholars are currently pursuing PhD under his guidance.