I’d like to share an idea that is as yet only partially formed. It has to do with increasing public awareness of passenger rail issues.
Three and a half years ago I knew almost nothing about Amtrak’s political situation. If I hadn’t gone actively seeking information through the internet, I’d be just as ignorant today. I credit Trainweb and the wonderful members of Railforum, among others, with my education.
In my studies I’ve observed two things. 1) The public for the most part wants passenger trains, and 2) The public knows very little about them. That’s about where I was in early 2000. I was a little ahead of the curve, having had experience riding Amtrak many years before, but not by much.
I am now a member of NARP and I follow the work of other rail advocacy organizations. However, I’ve noticed they all have one thing in common. They do great work behind the scenes, in the halls of Washington, for example, but aside from an occasional appearance on National Public Radio they are doing almost nothing to bring the word out into the open. The only time the public hears the word Amtrak it is almost always accompanied by the words “money losing” or “derailment.”
In my opinion, we will never have a decent rail transportation system in this country without the support of the masses. And we cannot get the support of the public as long as the public remains ignorant.
To improve this situation I have and idea that may help. It involves coordinating the financial resources of individuals such as ourselves to place prominent ads in our local newspapers promoting passenger rail. Such ads can be fairly expensive for one individual to pay for, but if spread among many people the cost per person might be reduced to something equivalent to the annual membership dues to NARP.
Now comes the tricky part. How would such a system be organized? I think it would probably work best within the structure of an existing organization, such as NARP, which has a large base of members. I suspect that many of them would be more than happy to actively do something besides sending in their membership dues every year. NARP even offers an “Action Leaflet” which can be downloaded from its website in PDF format. It is well suited to this purpose. It even has membership information from which NARP could attract more members. Here is the latest version: http://www.narprail.org/leaf0305.pdf
NARP could assign a coordinator for each community who could then organize nearby members to fund the advertisements in their local paper.
However, when I wrote to NARP a year or so ago suggesting something along these lines I received no reply. Not even a “thanks, but no thanks” letter. When I called NARP and asked if the Action Leaflet could be used as a newspaper advertisement I was told that others had made similar inquiries but “the board had not authorized it for such use.” They were supposedly considering it, but I never heard back on that either.
Somehow for this to work there needs to be some way to handle the funds, and provide copy for the advertisements. If NARP, or another organization than can manage and allocate donations, is unwilling to do it, it adds a lot of complications. Perhaps, if you think this is a good idea, you may have some ideas on how to make this work.
Finally, while I haven’t come up with a workable plan, I have come up with an acronym for the program. I would call it TRAIN America. TRAIN would stand for Transcontinental Rail Awareness Information Network. The term TRAIN America has a dual meaning of education as well as supporting passenger trains.
The point of this is I’m tired of writing to Congress over and over again then sitting around and waiting for something to happen. I want to actively do something, and this seems like a possibility. Do any of you think this, or some variation of this, might be doable, or am I just living in fantasyland? ------------------ Trust God, love your neighbor, and never mistake opinion for truth. -Mr. Toy
[This message has been edited by Mr. Toy (edited 11-11-2003).]
Posted by dnsommer (Member # 2825) on :
Off the top, NARP appears to be burdened by politics much the same as any organization.
I'm not a member, but I've been considering joining. What other organization can I join?
Given our image-conscious culture, I think the most effective method of gaining public support is having celebrities and athletes endorse our trains.
Perhaps someone like Britney Spears can be persuaded to use an Amtrak train as a setting for a music video.
I'm not kidding.
Dave
Posted by irishchieftain (Member # 1473) on :
IMHO, using celebrities to sell train travel (even as "product placement") will be incumbent upon increasing train speeds to competitive levels. No use advertising beef and selling tofu instead.
NARP does not seem to be taken too seriously. The only thing that would make Congress stand up and take notice is a massvie influx of new members plus a change in focus. Settling for 79-mph rail service and even having people like David Gunn say things in public like "we'll never have the kind of HSR that other countries have, so don't expect it" should not be tolerated. However, I suspect that re-educating the public concerning the truth related to long-distance and interstate passenger rail service will take a lot of effort, a long time, and certainly will be dependent upon an en-masse lack of confidence in the commercial aviation system...
[This message has been edited by irishchieftain (edited 11-11-2003).]
Posted by dnsommer (Member # 2825) on :
These days it seems like people will buy anything 'cool' regardless of the quality.
Dave
Posted by coachclass (Member # 2382) on :
One idea: I have found that local weekly community newspapers are always wanting for articles of intrest to the community and will be glad to publish an article and picture for free. If just a few railfans would submit trip reports and pictures to their local paper in a format that would be easy for the public to understand and appreciate, that could generate a lot of publicity for no cost. It would also be a good idea to include refrences to places where people could get more information about local train service/schedules.
Posted by ShaLeah (Member # 2856) on :
I couldn't read all your post, Mr. Toy, so forgive me if I jump off subject at any time. I promise to read it when I get back from my honeymoon.
Since I started working for the company I have maintained a couple of mindsets.
1. We will never have a successful rail system until passenger trains gain priority over freight. If dispatchers continue to have the ability to put freight travel ahead of passenger travel we will have to keep on dealing with mounting delays. I think it's sad that this nation puts travelling tomatoes ahead of travelling people. How can we make passenger service a priority? Just a couple thoughts. a. Fine rail owners for allowing freight ahead. It's clear that the rails are owned by many different companies and that in it being so, Amtrak must pay 'rental fees' and yet the repercussions of delaying an Amtrak train are minimal. Maybe if the US goverment made it as illegal to do that as they have made it illegal to carry a pair of hair cutting scissors onto a plane cargo hold, we can avoid some of the biggest of Amtrak problems, delay related hassle. b. Make all trains consistent in everything from food, uniforms, service standards, equipment and ammenities. People who travel the train expect certain things, particularly if you are a regular. First class service has taken a turn for the worst, offering little to no perk save for meals and sleeping space, equipment varies from train to train to the point where one day you'll be snug as a bug in a rug and the next you'll be freezing your butt off in an old clunker of a car. While one day you might be able to get a nice, big blueberry muffin in the cafe and pay two dollars, tomorrow you may only have a tiny bran muffin for the same price. We need to have the same level of service throughout the train system so that people know what to expect -everywhere- they travel with us. c. This nation needs to slow down. In my opinion, what makes train travel unattractive to people is not the travel itself but how long it takes to get there. You can fly from NY to LA in a few hours, why take a train that can take days? You only get so much vacation, most people don't want to spend half of it on a train getting there. Those of us who like the train don't feel that way, until we learn as a nation to slow down a bit, I'm afraid we'll remain a minority. d. Large cities -need- to adopt a rail system for their commuters. NY, Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston, all very active in train travel, other large cities, Pittsburgh for example, Atlanta, Miami, those cities rely more on buses than trains. If we can get people to trust us to get them there short distance, they will inevitably follow in their long distance. e. We -need- to have express service across the country in order to appeal to the group of people who want to get there faster. As much as I find Alliance Ohio to be charming, I would not hesitate to take a train from NY to Portland provided it only stopped at MAJOR cities, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Cleveland or Toledo, Chicago and on west, without stopping at those smaller stations along the way. A lot of time is killed at these small station stops, as long as it takes forever to get from point A to point B on the rails, we're not going to get too popular. f. People need to stop driving all over the place. Yeah, that'll happen. g. I know I'm dreaming on this one but I'd like to see all rails, all across the land, be property of the US government or the state they go through, take them out of private ownership.
Just kicking out a few ideas. Now I have to go, I'm late for my own honeymoon!
ShaL
Posted by TBlack (Member # 181) on :
I'm not a big advocate of newspaper advertising, I don't think anybody reads them. I do think that some of what Shaleah says is right on, although I wouldn't worry about the fact that we are a minority, all you need is a critical mass. In the "let's not reinvent the wheel department", I would invite your thoughts on the Canadian operation. As I understand it, they don't make money either, but seem to enjoy more public support for the enterprise and therefore able to get gov't support. What do they do, and why don't we copy them?
Posted by dnsommer (Member # 2825) on :
Cruise ships are a very slow means of travel. One can fly from New York to Bermuda in two hours. A ship takes 36 hours. Still, nobody compares cruising times with flying times. The same comaprison isn't made between cars and airliners, either.
Have a look at a European timetable and you'll find numerous Auto-Train type services. Why does America have only one train that carries cars? Has the idea of adding other Auto-Train ever been considered? There was a midwestern Auto-Train, but it too went to Florida, as I recall. People do go elsewhere! What about a route from the northeast to the Chicago area? Lorton, VA to Ontario, CA? Naperville, IL to Oakland, CA? How about even shorter routes? CHI-MSP. BOS-NYC-WAS. CHI-DEN. And let people without cars ride the train too.
Dave
[This message has been edited by dnsommer (edited 11-12-2003).]
[This message has been edited by dnsommer (edited 11-12-2003).]
Posted by espeefoamer (Member # 2815) on :
ShaLeah,Since most tracks in this country are owned by the freight railroads,they can'tJust make giving freight trains priority over Amtrak illegal.It would be prohibitively expensive for the government to buy all the tracks from the railroads,even if they would sell,which I doubt very much.
------------------ Trust Jesus,Ride Amtrak.
Posted by Mr. Toy (Member # 311) on :
There's been a lot of good thoughts here, but mostly related to long-term goals. Those issues are important, to be sure. However, I'd like to keep this thread more narrowly focused on some practical steps we can do to make the general public more aware of the basic issues so we can give Congress a kick in the butt to start making things right. We can worry about the details of what Amtrak should be in other threads.
ShaLeah, I want to respond to your comments under a new thread when I have more time. Meanwhile, have a happy honeymoon! My wife and I spent our first night as Mr. & Mrs. on the Coast Starlight almost 21 years ago.
------------------ Trust God, love your neighbor, and never mistake opinion for truth. -Mr. Toy
[This message has been edited by Mr. Toy (edited 11-12-2003).]
Posted by UncleBuck44 (Member # 2049) on :
quote:Originally posted by Mr. Toy: The only time the public hears the word Amtrak it is almost always accompanied by the words “money losing” or “derailment.”
Bastards
Posted by MPALMER (Member # 125) on :
quote:Originally posted by Mr. Toy: However, when I wrote to NARP a year or so ago suggesting something along these lines I received no reply. Not even a “thanks, but no thanks” letter.
Mr. Toy, Have you considered contacting the local organizations? I am a member of RailPAC (Rail Passenger Assoication of California). Its focus includes interstate trains, not just those within California. Their newsletter also lists contact points in nearby states. MP
Posted by Mr. Toy (Member # 311) on :
Mpalmer, I hadn't considered RailPAC, which I am also a member of. Problem is RailPAC membership is limited to California, and doesn't have the reach of a national organization. But I do communicate with RailPAC somewhat regularly, so I might give it a try. I've also considered going to National Corridors. I'm also considering writing to someone different at NARP and seeing if it will do any good.
------------------ Trust God, love your neighbor, and never mistake opinion for truth. -Mr. Toy
