TRIP PRODUCTIVITY EVALUATION OF BUS SERVICE: MEDAN KIDD BUS STATION

Bus scheduling is an important factor to improve public transportation service demand. The more punctual bus operates, the more passengers using this service. From earlier observation, current bus system has punctuality problem where passengers waiting time become longer at bus stop before bus arrive. Growing traffic congestion, the need to preserve the environment and the problems of road safety are the main reasons to be considered for the improvement in public transportation services. To provide a good public transport services, travel schedule of each bus should be provided and adhered to by all drivers. In addition, the bus scheduling should be displayed at each terminal and the bus stop for passengers guide. Therefore, the passenger will be more interested in using public transport because of accessibility and reliability of this facility. The objective of this study is to evaluate trip productivity of city bus services. The quality of service of city bus operation will be evaluated by level of services. For application, a case study based on Ipoh city bus was conducted. Three routes were chosen to assess bus operation for the whole day in a week per route. The survey consists of tracking location along bus route, bus headway, service frequency and bus travel time, and boarding and alighting of passenger. The result shows the frequency of bus is very low compared to Bank World standard. Even the level of service (LOS) of this operation is in good level (LOS C), the passengers still need to wait for a long time to ride the bus. The improvement of the service needs to be considered in terms of condition of bus and the competition factors with other bus operators. Thus, trip productivity of bus services will be increase.