Mapping the Intellectual Structure of Service Quality Research in Public Transport: A Bibliometric Analysis

Abstract

The quality of services delivered by public transport operators is used to assess the level of service provided to passengers and users. Improved public transportation quality of service (QOS) will attract new customers to switch from private automobiles to the public transportation system. This evaluation of public transportation service quality is an important tool for transportation operators and planners in attracting and retaining customers, setting strategic goals, and making funding choices. Several studies on the quality of public transport service have been published. However, extensive and quantitative research are lacking. Furthermore, just eleven reviews on the quality of public transport services have been published in the Scopus database. The current review was carried out to provide scholars and practitioners with the update of public transport quality publications through the last 10 years (20122022) to fulfil their concerns and answer their public transport service quality question. This paper contains a literature review of quality of public transport service. A bibliometric analysis was performed using VOSviewer software analysis the service quality of public transportation publications obtained from the Scopus database to enable researchers to trace the historical and annual records of publications related to service quality covering the leading countries, institutions, journals, most frequently used keywords, authors, citation network analysis and the most cited publication. A preliminary version of this work was presented at the International Graduate Conference of Built Environment and Surveying 2023 and appeared in its proceedings. This expanded version provides a significant extension through advanced statistical forecasting and a more comprehensive literature synthesis.