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In countries such as India and china, there is increased focus on shifting people to public transport from personal vehicles.In spite of extensive efforts, personal vehicles are still the preferred, primary mode of transport in large urban areas in these countries.The present paper reports results from a part of our ongoing study to understand what drives commuter preference for personal vehicles and what can be done to make public transport an attractive alternative option.Here we look at how commuters in Tirupati, a city in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, view the available public transport, which is primarily a city bus service.Tirupati is a major pilgrimage and cultural center, with one of the most-visited places of worship in the world.Tirupati proper has a population of about 300,000, which rises to a little over 450,000 if the urbanized areas around the city are included.The focus of the current study was restricted to the residents of Tirupati who use the bus service for going to work or school.A small representative sample of bus users was selected and they were asked to rate the bus service on attributes such as frequency, travel time, punctuality, price, cleanliness, staff behaviour, seat availability, bus stop security, safety from accidents, bus stop condition, route and schedule information available at bus stops, on board security, and bus comfort.The objective of this study was to gain an understanding of the overall customer satisfaction with bus transport in Tirupati, and to investigate which service quality attributes most influence the level of customer satisfaction in the bus transportation facilities provided.The results are then compared with the guidelines on evaluating transit performance developed by the Transit Cooperative Research Program of the US Transportation Research Board, and with parameters based on surveys conducted by agencies in Singapore and in the EU.The purpose of this comparison is to identify any similarities and differences due to different economic and cultural context, and see what changes can be made to make public transit a more attractive choice in India.