# NARP rebrands as RPA



## Thirdrail7 (Dec 2, 2017)

NARP rebrands as RPA

Click on the link to see the actual logo. Please allow a brief fair use quote:



> The National Association of Railroad Passengers (NARP) has changed its name to the Rail Passengers Association (RPA) and adopted a new logo that “evokes the image of a train window through which passengers view the world.”
> The rebranding comes on the 50th anniversary of the organization’s founding, and “heralds a new age of advocacy for rail passengers in North America,” RPA said. “The new brand image was developed over the past year after extensive research and review of the organization’s membership of more than 28,000 rail passengers. It coincides with the planned launch of a new web address at www.railpassengers.org, and the previously announced relocation of the organization’s headquarters in Washington, DC, to a larger, modern and connected office space. The new brand is designed to appeal to a broad swath of riders—in every age group—who can benefit from rail as a major mode of transportation, including to work, school and for recreation.”
> The RPA logo, a landscape-oriented rectangle, with two slanted lines in its lower left corner, “allows the organization to highlight scenes riders would see from their train seat by adding different pictures and photos inside the window,” RPA said. “By highlighting the passenger’s view, the brand makes the passenger experience its central focus. It is also designed to be flexible for an increasingly digital and ever-changing world.”


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## Green Maned Lion (Dec 2, 2017)

I wonder how this will effect RUN


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## Palmetto (Dec 3, 2017)

What's RUN, please?


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## Ryan (Dec 3, 2017)

Rail Users Network.

http://www.railusers.net


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## MikefromCrete (Dec 3, 2017)

This rebranding seems kind of silly. NARP has a 50-year reputation as an advocate for passenger trains. Why suddenly change the name? It's not like NARP is that much longer than RPA. This is starting from scratch with name recognition. I don't see any need for it.


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## Green Maned Lion (Dec 3, 2017)

I personally suspect it is an attack on RUN.


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## Mystic River Dragon (Dec 4, 2017)

I don't understand why there would be an attack on RUN--I don't see the connection. I am a RUN member because I like their newsletter, but I don't see why the two couldn't coexist--the more passenger rail advocacy groups, the better.

RUN seems awfully lowkey for NARP to bother with, anyway--I like RUN, but have wondered just how effective they are (although their chairman has a new column in Passenger Train Journal, so maybe they are trying to become more visible).

I wonder if changing from NARP to RPA has more to do with hoping people will think it's a new and more effective advocacy group. I know NARP has some wonderful members, like our own Charlie Hamilton, who do good work. But NARP in general may have had a reputation for not being as effective as possible.

And, just as an afterthought, I think the logo looks ridiculous. It doesn't look like a train window--it looks like a store gift card with two deep scratches on it.


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## jis (Dec 4, 2017)

Mystic, if you put three rail advocates in a room there will suddenly spring forth four rail advocacy organizations and they will spend a lot of time in cat fights, bickering among themselves and coming up with completely mad schemes, thus diverting considerable energy away from productive pursuits. This has been my unfortunate observation over the last 30 years that I have been progressively more and more exasperated by the entire bunch




Of late things seem to have improved a bit, but that may just be a happy seasonal variation. Fortunately in spite of this dysfunction, occasionally things gel together and some progress is achieved.


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## the_traveler (Dec 4, 2017)

I personally think RPA is very appropriate. I like it.

And I do not see how RPA is an attack on the name RUN. True, both start with R but the rest is different. You could also say that AAA is an attack on AA because it has 1 more letter. Also AA is used by American Airlines and also Alcoholic Anonymous, so which is an attack on the other?





Before this thread, I have never heard of RUN - and I see I am not the only one.


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## jis (Dec 4, 2017)

Actually, it is some of the RUN folks that spend more time bad mouthing RPA/NARP, than the other way round. I don't think RPA/NARP really spend too much time worrying about RUN



There are also a few who happen to be in at least middle level leadership positions at both RPA and RUN, so there is no clear cut organizational antipathy or collaboration. It is more of a case by case basis depending on which loud vocal person you happen to run into.


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## Green Maned Lion (Dec 4, 2017)

I couldn’t agree with you more about th nature of the movement. But i can not come up with another reason for an intensely asinine rebranding of an organization whose brand is not among its myriad issues.


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## jis (Dec 4, 2017)

I have given an explanation of it in the previous thread on this subject. I think it has mostly to do with a new regime marking the fire hydrants more than anything else. I don’t think they give a rat’s patutie about RUN.

Sent from my iPhone using Amtrak Forum


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## Green Maned Lion (Dec 4, 2017)

If they are that childish god help them.


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## jis (Dec 4, 2017)

Green Maned Lion said:


> If they are that childish god help them.


That is par for the course for many large companies too and god seems to be helping them along too [emoji57]

Sent from my iPhone using Amtrak Forum


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## neroden (Dec 4, 2017)

So, the new logo is IMHO idiotic, since it fails as a logo.

But the name change has a reason. And from the horse's mouth, Jim Mathews, here's the reason:

(Paraphrased from memory)

'When we go to Capitol Hill and talk to a Congressman, by the time we say 'We're from the National Association of...", they've tuned out.'

Really. That's the reason. Put "rail" and "passengers" first so that the Congressmen and Congressional aides, who have the attention span of mayflies, don't tune out.

Unfortunately, I actually believe this. It's a legitimate reason.


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## Green Maned Lion (Dec 5, 2017)

Yeah, except real advocacy is done with staffers, not the congress critters themselves.


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## NorthShore (Dec 8, 2017)

I'm still disappointed about the breakup of RUN and DMC


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## AmtrakBlue (Dec 8, 2017)

This is what I think of when I see RPA.


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## cirdan (Dec 8, 2017)

jis said:


> Mystic, if you put three rail advocates in a room there will suddenly spring forth four rail advocacy organizations and they will spend a lot of time in cat fights, bickering among themselves and coming up with completely mad schemes, thus diverting considerable energy away from productive pursuits. This has been my unfortunate observation over the last 30 years that I have been progressively more and more exasperated by the entire bunch
> 
> 
> 
> Of late things seem to have improved a bit, but that may just be a happy seasonal variation. Fortunately in spite of this dysfunction, occasionally things gel together and some progress is achieved.


That happens in any type of advocacy group.


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## Anderson (Dec 27, 2017)

Or in science fiction fandom, too...

I'm not quite sure how useful the rebrand will ultimately be. I don't think it was so much "marking territory" as it was "consultants feeling a need to seem useful". I won't go into further detail since there are questions that I'm not inclined to ask myself, but to make a long story short all was not well within NARP a few years ago and some consultants were brought in to try and deal with various issues (both real and percieved). I will say that it is part of an overall strategy to get the organization on better financial footing (said strategy having had mixed results due to Hermes apparently not liking us very much).


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## NorthShore (Jan 19, 2018)

AmtrakBlue said:


> This is what I think of when I see RPA.


U.S. Congressional Rail Rations (replacing the diner car in 2020!)


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## neroden (Jan 25, 2018)

Green Maned Lion said:


> Yeah, except real advocacy is done with staffers, not the congress critters themselves.


The staffers behave the same way. And to be honest, I've spoken to Congresspeople and most (not all) of them pay good attention... and I've spoken to staffers and they DO have the attention spans of mayflies. Maybe it has to do with how many pitches they get per day. Anyway, it's unfortunately quite correct to put the important parts of your name first.


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