Notice that we’ve created timetables for every Amtrak community in the state. Transit timetables are difficult to figure out. Traditional timetables read from top to bottom in one direction and then bottom to top in the other direction. Who reads that way? We designed each timetable to read top to bottom. Here is an example for Champaign-Urbana. Note that it’s a pdf for easy downloading and we enourage users to distribute the flyer and let others know about these convenient schedules. The Champaign-Urbana page on the site is here.
We created a particular page for each of the 29 Amtrak Illinois communities (as well as some non-Illinois communities as well, just to be nice) on the site, so that users can identify not with the entire national Amtrak system but rather with the Amtrak page for their community with local links and a request from us to send in the links we have overlooked.
Ideally, we’d have a community calendar for each page with user submissions to even further cultivate a sense of ownership, but budget constraints didn’t allow for that on this project. We hope to do that somewhere else for another state.
We’re creating events by holding eight (!) press conferences tomorrow throughout the state with community leaders and elected officials we have been recruiting to participate over the last two months. We anticipate generating earned media about Amtrak service from these press conferences, and that’s vital for spreading the word. It’s also a lot cheaper (and more fun) to hold an event in a market and generate a print (and potentially TV) story than it is to buy an ad. With an event, agencies often get a better reach into potential riders and develop stronger partnerships with community and political stakeholders. Every agency and supporting organizations should be manufacturing events on a biannual basis in every part of their network to spread the word about their service, build ridership and cement partnerships.
Note that we’re working for the Midwest High Speed Rail Association, a membership-based advocacy organization, with funding from the State of Illinois’ Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity in coordination with Amtrak Illinois (itself a partnership between Amtrak and the State of Illinois’ Department of Transportation). There are lots of pots of money out there to build ridership aside from agency budgets. Go find them and get them! Done right, it’s a great investment.
If you’d like to read more about our thinking on this project, we’ve posted our strategic plan on the site here. I’d be curious to hear your thoughts on the subject.
Wish us luck!”>
2 responses
Do you want to comment?
Comments RSS and TrackBack Identifier URI ?
Trackbacks