The Hamilton Street Railway's mandate is the provision of public transit services within the urban area of the Regional Municipality of Hamilton-Wentworth. Like many other transit systems in Canada, the HSR was confronted with the challenge of attempting to maintain the current level of service in the face of declining ridership and revenues. In December 1992, a "Service Quality Team" was established within the organization to identify, evaluate and implement changes to improve the service effectiveness. A number of data collection activities were undertaken including customer focus group sessions, interviews with elected officials and employees, on-street service appraisals and performance benchmarking with other similar transit properties. Five specific areas were targeted for improvement: schedule adherence, transfer connections, cleanliness of buses, in-service vehicle change-offs and management of customer contacts. This paper will look at the results from initiatives that were taken. (A)
Abstract