Satisfaction with crowding and other attributes in public transport

We analyse customer satisfaction surveys conducted among public transport passengers over 15 years in Stockholm. We analyze satisfaction and importance of many attributes and their temporal trends, focusing on attributes that stand out from the rest in some way, which is primarily crowding. Crowding is the attribute with the lowest satisfaction and the only attribute for which satisfaction declines over time. However, in spite of the low satisfaction, crowding is still less important for the total satisfaction than the cognitive attributes reliability and frequency (the most important attributes). Only when crowding levels reach high levels, like that of the most crowded bus services in central Stockholm, does crowding become as important as the cognitive attributes. Also the attribute reliability stands out it is the most important attribute. For the attributes reliability and crowding, data allow us to compare satisfaction and importance with performance. We find that that satisfaction and importance are influenced by the performance level for both attributes.