SERVICE QUALITY OF VIETNAM RAILWAY

Abstract

The study was conducted at Viet Nam National Railways (VNR) on 5 railway lines including: Ha Noi – Ho Chi Minh, Ha Noi – Hai Phong; Ha Noi – Vinh, Ha Noi – Lao Cai and Ha Noi – Lang Son. Specifically, it sought to determine the quality of services based on the experience and perception of respondents in terms of Tangibility, Reliability, Responsiveness, Empathy, Assurance, Service and Social responsibility. The study used information gathered through interviews and structured questionnaire based on Likert’s scale model with the participation of 370 passengers who using rail services. Respondents are 213 male respondents and 157 female respondents coming from 5 railway lines in Vietnam, 57.6% of the respondents are male and 42.4% are female. Regarding service ranking of railway sector, the service quality on the railway of Hanoi - Ho Chi Minh City was rated good while the one on the railway of Hanoi - Lang Son was rated "Poor", the rest of railway transports were rated “Average” by all passengers. The factors “Assurance” and “Social responsibility” was rated “good”, the factors “Tangibility” and “Service itself” were rated “Poor”. Other factors like “Reliability”, “Responsiveness”, “Empathy” were rated “Average” by all passengers. The research has shown the strengths, weaknesses, threat and opportunities of service quality on the Viet Nam National Railway in order to propose recommendations to improve the quality of Viet Nam National Railway.