Explaining the relations between bus public transport governance-management operational factors, and the service quality perceived in pristina, Kosovo

Polluting aged buses stuck in traffic, non-integrated ticketing, reduced quantity of service over the weekends, and crowded vehicles in the peak hours with poor ambient conditions, are some of the features that describe the “non-integrated low quality perceived” bus public transport service in Pristina, the capital city of Kosovo. The Bus Public Transport system, is governed by the Municipality, and managed and operated by public and private companies. From the study pursued evidence was found that there are critical concerns regarding the quality of the service perceived by users. What are the factors contributing to it? What decisions or functions are the operators and the Municipality making or fulfilling to facilitate the operation of the service? Are these decisions made and functions performed, causing harm or goodness? How are citizens really perceiving the quality of the public and private bus services? Are there lines or companies doing better than others? These are some of the questions being addressed by this research work. Finding out to what extent, the decisions and practices regarding operations pursued by the bus operators and the Municipality, are affecting the users’ service quality perceptions, lay at the core of this research. To achieve the objective a “case study” strategy was pursued, a surveying team jumped into the buses of four of the most representative lines in Pristina, for near 3 weeks, and asked 402 passengers, “what they think about different aspects of the service”. Also, the three most representative bus service providing companies and the Municipality were interviewed (11 interviews) about their management practices. Two levels of analysis were pursued (descriptive and inferential), and their results, were complemented by the qualitative inputs from the interviews. In the end, some critical findings were obtained: Two of the four bus services studied (one operated by a public, and one by a private company) were rated very positively by bus users in terms of quality perceived. For the users’ some aspects (criteria) of the quality of the service ended up being more sensitive and influential to their overall perception, like comfort, time, and staff kindness. Likewise, some functions performed by the organizations involved (Municipality and operators), ended up being more influential to those criteria, like Vehicle renewal, Vehicle maintenance, Personnel, among others. The relation between “vehicle renewal and comfort” happened to be one of the most significant and strong ones, both positively and negatively. Based on the findings and outcomes obtained from this research work, the Municipality could focus and prioritize its actions on the evolution of the management and operational aspects of the bus system that are more influential towards the overall quality of the service. The vision of having a “High quality integrated bus public system transport” in Pristina should be the light that guides the path to follow.