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Shanghai tourism and transport authorities vowed Wednesday to improve daily operations, after their public services last year ranked the lowest on an annual government list that grades the quality of some 40 public services in the city.

Travel agency and long-distance bus services in the city tied for the bottom spot, each scoring 80 points on the yearly report released last month, but were not the only ones to disappoint last year, said Shanghai Civilization Office, which has carried out the yearly study since 2002.

Last year, the city's public services overall fared slightly worse than the previous year, when the city hosted the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai - yet they still did better on average than previous years, the report said.

Forty public services scored an average of 84.01 points last year, falling just below the 84.2 points received for the city's previous Expo year. Improvements, however, were made to 18 public services last year - the most were seen in customs, aviation and airlines and power services, which all received the highest points at a score of no lower than 89 points - but the rest of the city's public services failed to meet the standards accomplished for the Expo.

Travel agency and long-distance bus services each scored the lowest at 80 points, with tourists complaining heavily about poorly organized tours by agencies, saying that last-minute changes made to previously arranged itineraries without their approval often rerouted them to shops at the expense of sightseeing; while long-distance bus passengers said that bus drivers repeatedly failed to stop at designated stations and further complained of poor hygiene conditions on buses.

The city's tourism bureau said Wednesday that it aims to better its services and called on local tourists to help by reporting problems to its bilingual hot line (6439-3615). The bureau said that it would look into the complaints within seven days and aim to settle them before 90 days.

Local transport authorities chimed in, too, saying Wednesday that it plans to check on bus drivers via its GPS system, while staff will be required to inspect all buses after each journey to clear trash before boarding new passengers.