Performance Analysis of Public Bus Transport Services in Rural Areas

This study investigated the performance of rural public bus transport services in Jordan Valley. The performance measures included availability, comfort and convenience, waiting time, mobility, productivity and safety. The data used in this research was collected from three sources: field survey of existing bus routes, operational data from Land Transport Regulatory Commission and questionnaire surveys which were distributed to a sample of passengers and bus drivers. The obtained data was used to compute the performance measures, as well as to develop statistical models to estimate the average waiting time of buses at peak and off-peak hours. The results indicated that the waiting time at off-peak hours was two and a half times the waiting time at peak hours. It was found that 40% of the external bus routes were within the range of overall Level of Service (LOS) C & D, 26.67% between B & D, 13.33% between B & C, 13.33% between C & E and 6.67% between D & E. Also, it was found that 60% of internal bus routes’ LOSs were between C & D, 20% between C & E and 20% with LOS C. It was found that the average perceived waiting time depends on the total travel time regardless of on-peak or off-peak trips. KEYWORDS: Public transport, Bus services, Performance measures, Waiting time, Jordan Valley.