Four in five respondents to a Metro Tasmania survey conducted by Tasmanian research firm EMRS reported that they were satisfied with “the services provided by Metro overall”.
Metro CEO Katie Cooper said this compared favourably to the last research undertaken in 2019 when the figure was 76 per cent.
“It is an excellent result off the back of good work by the entire Metro team, but particularly our drivers,” she said.
“In addition to successfully navigating our way through the challenges of Covid-19, we have improved the network, modernised our vehicles and improved the availability of information for customers.”
More than two thirds of respondents (67 per cent) reported that they chose to catch the bus because of the “…convenience – easy to access / good route / good availability”.
The most common reason provided for catching a bus was to “go shopping” (42 per cent), followed by “to go to work”, “to go to school” and to “visit friends or relatives” (36 per cent each).
When asked questions about the network, respondents were most likely to be satisfied with “the cost to use the service” (80 per cent), followed by the directness of the route (78 per cent).
Ms Cooper said it was important to check in with passengers about their satisfaction or otherwise regarding the service the public transport company was delivering.
“It is really important that we hear from the people who use our services so we can improve in the right areas,” she said.
“While we enjoy receiving positive feedback, constructive criticism is perhaps more important so we can identify and deliver improvements.
“For example, 21 out of 600 respondents told us that they were dissatisfied with the services provided by Metro, listing dissatisfaction with the reliability of buses running to schedule, bus service frequency and customer service.
“Supported by the Tasmanian Government, Metro is leading the development and implementation of a new ticketing platform that will provide real time information and enable customers to track the progress of their bus.”
600 Metro Tasmania users were interviewed at the end of 2021 as part of a 10th round of the annual Metro Customer Satisfaction Survey research program.
The research was designed to gather data on satisfaction with Metro’s services.
Passengers in Hobart, Launceston and Burnie answered questions about their travelling habits, experiences and their perception of the quality of Metro’s services.
The survey also sought feedback regarding any impacts of the Covid 19 pandemic on their use of Metro services.
83 per cent noted that “no”, Covid 19 had not impacted their use of Metro services.
82 per cent of respondents were satisfied with Metro’s Covid 19 safety precautions (49 per cent were very satisfied), while 75 per cent said they were satisfied with “the advice and information Metro provided during the Covid 19 pandemic (46 per cent were very satisfied).