The requirement of heavy subsidy and poor service quality are the two major concerns of ordinary bus services in Indian cities. Improving quality of ordinary service as per the requirements of users without putting undue burden on transit operator in terms of additional subsidy is a major challenge for policymakers. A six-stage methodology is demonstrated in the present work for the improvement of ordinary bus services by incorporating the requirements of users and operator. The methodology largely includes selection of attributes for econometric model, development of econometric model, fixing the range of attributes’ level for improvement, and development and simulation of alternative scenarios. Taking three ordinary bus routes in Kolkata city, several scenarios were investigated to provide recommendations under two different cases (improvement with and without fare increment). The findings indicate that the quality of service could be improved without any increment in fare or additional subsidy from the Government. Such an improvement could benefit both users and Government. The benefit to user could be augmented further with a marginal fare increment and reduced subsidy from the Government. Although the methodology is demonstrated with reference to Kolkata city, it could be applied in other cities for deriving city-specific service design and improvement of bus services.

高补贴要求和服务质量差是印度城市普通公交服务的两大问题。根据用户的要求提高普通服务的质量，而不会给过境运营商带来额外补贴方面的过度负担，这是政策制定者面临的一项重大挑战。在目前的工作中，通过结合用户和运营商的要求来改进普通公交服务，展示了一种六阶段方法。该方法论主要包括计量经济模型的属性选择、计量模型的开发、确定改进的属性水平范围以及替代情景的开发和模拟。乘坐加尔各答市内的3条普通公交线路，研究了几种情景以在两种不同情况下提供建议（改进和不加价）。调查结果显示，服务质素可在不增加车费或政府额外资助的情况下改善。这样的改进可以使用户和政府都受益。可通过微幅加价和减少政府补贴，进一步增加用户的利益。虽然该方法是参考加尔各答市进行论证的，但它可以应用于其他城市，以推导出特定于城市的服务设计和公交服务的改进。这样的改进可以使用户和政府都受益。可通过微幅加价和减少政府补贴，进一步增加用户的利益。虽然该方法是参考加尔各答市进行论证的，但它可以应用于其他城市，以推导出特定于城市的服务设计和公交服务的改进。这样的改进可以使用户和政府都受益。可通过微幅加价和减少政府补贴，进一步增加用户的利益。虽然该方法是参考加尔各答市进行论证的，但它可以应用于其他城市，以推导出特定于城市的服务设计和公交服务的改进。