The Role of Psychological Factors, Service Quality, and Environmental Concern in MRT Usage: Insights from a Preliminary Study in Malaysia

¹ Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600 UKM Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia
² College of Traffic and Transportation, Nanning University, 8 Longting Road, Nanning, Guangxi, China 530000
³ School of Liberal Studies (CITRA UKM), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600 UKM Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia
⁴ Department of Defence Science, Faculty of Defence Science and Technology, National Defence University of Malaysia, 57000 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

^* Corresponding author: nazrulhakimi@ukm.edu.my

Published online: 19 December 2025

Abstract

The aim of this study was to examine factors affecting mode-switching behaviour among users of private vehicles in Malaysia to use the Mass Transit System (MRT). A total of 489 respondents from Klang Valley participated in the study, which was conducted from January 2023 to April 2023. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software was used to perform two types of analysis: (i) the Pearson correlation test to examine the association between factors affecting the behavioural intention to utilise rail transit among users of private vehicles, and (ii) multiple linear regression to examine factors affecting users of private vehicles in terms of their behavioural intention and switching behaviour to ride the MRT. The findings indicate that all the factors had significantly positive relationships: concerns for the environment, perceived behavioural control, attitude, subjective norms, quality of service, behavioural intention and behaviour to use the MRT. Attitude and subjective norms strongly influence behaviour intention, while behaviour intention and service quality strongly influence the switching behaviour of private vehicle users to use the MRT in Malaysia. This preliminary study provides details to different parties, like service providers, authorities, policymakers, planners and academics, who could collaborate to formulate better approaches to attract users of private vehicles to change to sustainable forms of transport, like the MRT.