Quality in transport systems. Public transportation systems. Survey on Public Transport.

This dissertation aims to evaluate the service currently offered by the Public Transport System of the Recife Metropolitan Region (STPP/RMR). To this end, a satisfaction questionnaire was drawn up considering the four modes offered in the region: bus, BRT, metro and light rail, as well as the integration within the system. The questionnaire was disseminated via social media through face-to-face collection stage conducted at the busiest locations. Perceptions were compared between frequent and non frequent users and between users who use the transport during peak hours and those who use it outside peak hours The Mann-Whitney test was used to check for statistically significant differences. The results show that passengers have a very poor perception of the quality of the service offered, regardless of the mode used or whether they are frequent users or use the service during peak hours. The exception to this poor evalutation is the perception of travel time, which is considered reasonable by more than half of the passengers when considering the modes with the better right-of-way, namely BRT, light rail and metro. As for the comparison between groups, the differences between frequent and non-frequent users were limited to the attributes “speed” and “number of transfers”, with frequent users having the worst perception, contrary to initial assumptions. When comparing peak and off-peak use, the significant differences were observed only for "speed" and "tariff", with the worst evaluations associated with peak use, as expected. Several suggestions are made to address the numerous deficiencies pointed out. It is highlighted the need to obtain funds beyond the tariff in order to raise the funds needed to improve the quality of the STPP without increasing its fare, which is already considered expensive by the vast majority of the population.