To retain or improve the market share of public transport, more attention has to be dedicated to ‘softer’ aspects such as comfort and perception. These aspects need a different approach to the way we’re used to deal with public transport. At the moment responsibilities for certain tasks are often ill-defined. This is most clearly at stake at the development and quality improvement tasks within public transport. With the implementation the latest public transport act (WP2000) the devision for quality improvement of responsibilities has been laid in-between the government and the public transport company. For that reason, product improvement, innovation and marketing are slowed down. Popular belief tend to focus on general solutions; i.e. direct control of either the government or transport company over these tasks should do the trick. Yet qualtity improvements are contingencies as they are closely connected to public opinions. Solutions in this field tend to be varied in accordance with the big variation in everyday travelers perceiving and valuing possible improvements. Therefore we suggest a more practical oriented approach. More parties have to be equally involved in the improvement of certain qualities. And each of these improvements gets its own dedicated decision proces. (Author/publisher)
Abstract