25 years of research for Transperth!
July 2, 2019This week, we hit a special milestone at Painted Dog. Chris Batini, one of our Principals, is celebrating a massive 25 years of running the Transperth Passenger Satisfaction Monitor (PSM) for the Public Transport Authority!
The PSM is the longest continuously running passenger satisfaction tracking project in Australia and is a cornerstone piece of research for Transperth’s annual planning and service improvement initiatives. Each year we survey over 4,000 users of buses, trains and ferries across Perth, at stops, stations and on-board; and in the 25 years Chris has been at the helm (since 1995!), the PSM has surveyed over 120,000 public transport users!
That’s a lot of people contributing to the future of public transport in Perth, and it’s been a real honour for Chris to play such an important and long-standing role. Chris explains, “I’ve always had a great interest and passion for all things transport and research, since my early years working at WA Police before transitioning into market research and ever since. The transport sector is extremely diverse and has provided me with great opportunity to work across many different types of projects. Throughout this, the Transperth PSM has been both the foundation and cornerstone project”.
As a young, up-and-coming researcher all those years ago, the chance to work on the PSM presented itself like any other. Little did he know it would lead to 25 years of working on one of the most influential ongoing research projects in the state!
“When an opportunity comes your way, like the PSM did for me back in 1995, little do you realise that with application, dedication and a desire to work with that client and on that project, it can lead to career-changing outcomes.
Claudia Amonini, another Principal at Painted Dog, said “this accomplishment is definitely something to be very proud of, as not many people in any industry can say they’ve been working with the same client for 25 years, let alone conducting the same tracker for 25 years! It’s a real testament to the hard work, thinking and creativity Chris and the team put into it every year!”
We agree, Claudia! Congratulations to Chris on such a great accomplishment – Painted Dog Research, Transperth, and the public transport users of WA are glad he said yes to the opportunity 25 years ago!
Enjoy some of the pictures below of us celebrating this milestone with a ‘raily’ impressive Transperth cake! And stay tuned over the next couple of weeks as we sit down with Chris to chat about what’s changed in those 25 years, and what he thinks is next for transport and research in general…
