The biggest improvement in customer satisfaction was seen in Vantaa, where the share of satisfied passengers was 83 per cent. Last year the figure was 73 per cent. “On the basis of this we can assume that residents of Vantaa have found the bus services that changed in summer 2015 when the Ring Rail Line was opened,” says the Director of HSL’s Public Transport Planning Department Tero Anttila.
The Metro continues to be the most popular public transport mode, with 92 per cent of passengers being satisfied with the services. A 2.5-minute headway was introduced on the Metro at the beginning of the autumn timetable season. At the same time, the trains were shortened.
Tram passengers were the second most satisfied and bus passengers slightly more satisfied than train passengers. The share of satisfied passengers was 89.4 per cent on tram services, 86.5 per cent on bus services and 86.2 per cent on train services.
Passengers more satisfied with the Metro replacement services in Espoo than in Helsinki
A total of 47 per cent of passengers living in Helsinki and 69 per cent of passengers living in Espoo considered that the Metro replacement services put in place by HSL because of the delayed completion of the West Metro were successful. On the basis of the customer satisfaction survey it seems that passengers who use the replacement services are more satisfied than those who do not use them, with the exception of Lauttasaari where passenger satisfaction decreased.
Anttila estimates that in Helsinki, passengers are dissatisfied because of the temporary bus services in Lauttasaari that are not considered to be as good as the earlier bus network.
“Buses in Lauttasaari have been crowded and we have worked to fix the problem, for example, by reinstating route 20. We continue to monitor the passenger numbers in Lauttasaari closely,” says Anttila.
In Helsinki, 37 per cent of passengers were satisfied with HSL’s communications efforts related to the delayed completion of the West Metro. In Espoo, passengers were more satisfied with nearly half of the respondents (46 per cent) considering that HSL managed the communications well.
HSL measures passenger satisfaction with public transport services year-round on all modes of public transport using onboard questionnaires. In autumn 2016, over 26,000 passengers responded to the survey. All survey results are available at: https://hsl.louhin.com/asty/
Link to the overall grade for public transport in the HSL area: https://hsl.louhin.com/asty/trends/?_tiny=fguh386sjuzgnwp6