Mapping the Landscape of Metro Service Quality Research: A Comprehensive SPAR-based Systematic Review and MetaAnalysis
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.66635/t5qfzk17Keywords:
Metro rail, Service quality, Commuter satisfaction, Systematic literature review, Bibliometric analysis, RAILQUAL, Public transportation, Urban transitAbstract
Purpose: To systematically map the world's research on metro service quality to identify which service quality dimensions affect commuter satisfaction and which behavioral outcomes are affected by the latter.
Methodology: based on the SPAR-4-SLR protocol, which involved the retrieval of a total of 54 comprehensive studies that were published from 2015 to 2026 from the Scopus and TRIS databases for a systematic review and bibliometric mapping using the VOSviewer software. At the same time, a smaller sample of 22 primary empirical studies (k=22, N=10,523) focused on the 22 most critical factors was analyzed using a quantitative random-effects meta-analysis in Meta Essentials (v1.5).
Novelty: It offers the first empirical reconciliation of transit behavioral models by calculating a definitive global pooled correlation, mathematically incorporates a new RAILQUAL framework alongside traditional SERVQUAL metrics, and conceptualizes a new Input-Process-Output (IPO) framework.
Findings: Bibliometric co-occurrence shows that China leads the world in research footprint (2,728 citations), followed by Spain, the UK, and the USA. The meta-analysis reveals that the pooled effect size (r = 0.61, 95% CI: 0.48, 0.69) for service quality and satisfaction is very high and significant, and the trim-and-fill analysis does not indicate publication bias. Results indicate that local urban environments strongly influence transit perceptions, as evidenced by the high heterogeneity (I^2 = 99.08%).
Implications: It establishes a key future research agenda by focusing on under-researched Tier-II cities, incorporating universal design for vulnerable passengers, and broadening dynamic, AI-powered predictive modeling.
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