by Arborwayfan
What could we as fans do to get more people to ride existing trains and transit? We all want the trains, trolleys, etc., to keep running; that means that we want lots of people who aren't fans to ride them. Can we help increase ridership on existing systems?
I have one idea, and I'm curious about what other people think up.
A lot of us enjoy reading and rereading schedules and maps and planning trips. Why not come up with easy-to-follow advice for getting from one place to another when the actual railroads involved don't give it.
For example, someone in Durham, NH, with an appointment in Lawrence, Andover, or Reading should probably take the Downeaster #xx to Haverhill and change to commuter rail #xx. The T website doesn't tell them that. The Amtrak website doesn't tell them that. They just list "connecting service" and a telephone number. We could do better than that. (So could they, but they don't seem to want to, although writing them a note suggesting it couldn't hurt. Ideally the Amtrak reservation site and the T route-finder would include some of these connections, but there are probably reasons not to do that, including having to update schedules and not wanting people to think they can take Amtrak Business Class to Reading.) Maybe if a bunch of us worked out many of these connections and posted them online in some easy-to-read way, AND GOT THE T AND AMTRAK TO EITHER HOST IT OR LINK TO IT, it would increase ridership on both systems. I guess I am thinking of a classy site kind of like the book "Car Free in Boston". There are similar Amtrak-T connections on the south side. This can work; I made a homemade schedule showing how to take the South Shore Line from South Bend, IN, to a station on the Metra Electric Division, take Metra to Homewood, and Amtrak to Champaign-Urbana; that can save over an hour and a walk across downtown Chicago, and it got him to take the train instead of driving several times.
What else could we do, or do any of you do, to attract riders to the trains we want to keep?
This posting would make just as much sense on a dozen other forums, so if anyone wants to copy it, do. We enjoy suggesting improvements, asking for new service, and pointing out how the T (in this case; could be CTA, BART, London Underground, Amtrak, EFEChile, or any other railroad) could do better, but we also want the existing systems to do well.
I have one idea, and I'm curious about what other people think up.
A lot of us enjoy reading and rereading schedules and maps and planning trips. Why not come up with easy-to-follow advice for getting from one place to another when the actual railroads involved don't give it.
For example, someone in Durham, NH, with an appointment in Lawrence, Andover, or Reading should probably take the Downeaster #xx to Haverhill and change to commuter rail #xx. The T website doesn't tell them that. The Amtrak website doesn't tell them that. They just list "connecting service" and a telephone number. We could do better than that. (So could they, but they don't seem to want to, although writing them a note suggesting it couldn't hurt. Ideally the Amtrak reservation site and the T route-finder would include some of these connections, but there are probably reasons not to do that, including having to update schedules and not wanting people to think they can take Amtrak Business Class to Reading.) Maybe if a bunch of us worked out many of these connections and posted them online in some easy-to-read way, AND GOT THE T AND AMTRAK TO EITHER HOST IT OR LINK TO IT, it would increase ridership on both systems. I guess I am thinking of a classy site kind of like the book "Car Free in Boston". There are similar Amtrak-T connections on the south side. This can work; I made a homemade schedule showing how to take the South Shore Line from South Bend, IN, to a station on the Metra Electric Division, take Metra to Homewood, and Amtrak to Champaign-Urbana; that can save over an hour and a walk across downtown Chicago, and it got him to take the train instead of driving several times.
What else could we do, or do any of you do, to attract riders to the trains we want to keep?
This posting would make just as much sense on a dozen other forums, so if anyone wants to copy it, do. We enjoy suggesting improvements, asking for new service, and pointing out how the T (in this case; could be CTA, BART, London Underground, Amtrak, EFEChile, or any other railroad) could do better, but we also want the existing systems to do well.
