Growing The Passion!

[RailFanLNK]

Had a nice surprise last week. A supervisor at work walked up to me and said, "hey Al, I rode Amtrak for the first time 3 weeks ago and LOVED IT!" It made me proud. He said, "it was you who planted the seed of riding Amtrak in my head". He took the CZ from OSC to LNK and rode coach. He's all fired up now about riding the Empire Builder. His girlfriend is orignally from MSP and they plan to drive from LNK to MSP and catch the EB to Seattle. I gave him a goodie bag of some DVD's, and Empire Builder magazine and stuff to gear up for his trip. Ok folks...how many of you try your best in promoting rail travel? My friend is legally blind to the point that he can't drive a car but can still see, but he loved the CZ and the scenery and space he had riding on the train. Are we all doing our best to promote the mode of transportation that we are passionate about? Remember, to use the train in LNK, we depart either at 12:14am or 3:15am, so its not the easiest sell in the world either!

 

[Bob Dylan]

Nice Story Al, Thanks for Sharing!! :wub: (So youre partly responsible for the High Bucket Fares on the LD Trains! :lol: ) I think Most of us try to Spread the Amtrak Gospel whenever we can, it's not always easy! ("You mean Amtrak runs through ___________??? )

 

[GlobalistPotato]

Nice Story Al, Thanks for Sharing!! :wub: (So youre partly responsible for the High Bucket Fares on the LD Trains! :lol: ) I think Most of us try to Spread the Amtrak Gospel whenever we can, it's not always easy! ("You mean Amtrak runs through ___________??? )

Yeah. Generally it involves me telling my friends that there IS a train that goes up Dallas and Fort Worth, and then all the way to Chicago.

Then telling them the schedule...

 

[Rider]

Here's a conversation I have had minor variations of several times in recent years:

Me: "I'm going to California next week to see my daughter."

Them: "Nice. How are you getting there?"

Me: "By train."

Them: "Really?? You can do that?"

And yeah, I love to talk it up, and encourage people to take a train ride - even though with system growth so slow it is worrisome that if the trains do get a lot more popular it might become hard to get reservations!

 

[printman2000]

While many people I talk to are interested, having to start a trip with a four hour drive to the nearest station usually shuts it down quick.

 

[Oldsmoboi]

Watch for more high bucket fairs and roomette sellouts on the CL between Pittsburgh and Chicago because of me.

Due to the location of two of my company's offices, I've apparently made a compelling case for Roomette travel in place of airfares and an extra 2 nights in a hotel.

 

[the_traveler]

In many of my travels, I talk to people who say, "... This is my (our) first trip by train, and love it! ..." I then tell then about AGR (which many are not aware of). (Did you actually think I would pass up a chance for more points?

)

Even when I rode the Acela or some other train that many riders take all the time, you would be surprised how many do not know about AGR!

 

[RailFanLNK]

Printman, you have a harder sell than I do. Our schedule here sucks for the newcomer but I always try to find positive ways to sell that. Like: "You board at midnight and you don't need a hotel and arrive in Denver first thing in the morning and you don't have to drive!" So I have a few of those quotes up my sleeve!

 

[TransitGeek]

A question I always get when I mention I'm going to the Bay Area: "So, are you going to fly or drive?"

People are amazed that there's a train... though somewhat put off by the thought of having to set foot on a bus to Bakersfield. (I always tell them that it's actually very comfy, and a guaranteed connection.)

I haven't gotten anyone on Amtrak yet (that I know of), but two friends have switched from driving to Metrolink for their commute because of me, and one started taking the bus to school.

 

[stlouielady]

I often talk about my quarterly trips from St Louis to Kansas City, to drive on up to St Joseph, MO and points west in eastern Kansas. Several co-workers, as well as my boss, have said "that's a good idea, I should take the train", but, it doesn't work out all that well for them. Most of them are based out of Las Vegas, which as most of us know, doesn't have great train connection availability. I did convince a work acquaintance (not a co-worker, rather someone that we do work FOR), to ride the train with me back to St Louis from Kansas City next week, for $28, rather than take a $200 45 minute flight, so, I'm trying to do my part!

 

[Cristobal]

I've pretty much given up. Either you get it or you don't. This goes for co-workers, friends, and family. If I was to try telling any of them about my upcoming trip to Chicago and back by train I'd be met with blank stares and a "why?". :blink:

I will always speak well of my experiences with Amtrak and recommend it to anyone interested but it usually falls on deaf ears.

 

[TraneMan]

I work retail, and if I have a customer sitting down with me and we be talking about our summer plans. I'd bring up "We are taking Amatrak train out to Whitefish MT." And they be like "huh!, There's a train still?" or "I always wanted to take a train." I would plant the excitement of the trip on them.. I even do the same thing with my reps. I think I got one looking into it to see his family out in Montana!

Nice thing about our area, There are 2 stations under an hour drive. Eastbond is in the morning hours, and westbond is in the evening hours.. So nothing off the wall time.

 

[Anderson]

I've sold some people on the "Richmond Special": 66 to RVM at 4:55 PM, arrive 6:05 PM. Dinner at a nearby restaurant. Train home at 8:37 PM, reach NPN at 10:10 PM. It actually makes for a rather romantic, if slightly expensive, evening.

 

[WICT106]

It can be challenging, and the degree of challenge depends on the audience. We live in a nation where Amtrak suffers the perception that it is the only form of transportation that is subsidized. Amtrak also suffers from the perception that train travel is "slow" or out-of-date. I've had some folks look at me with disgust when I told them that I traveled between WI, MN, & FL by train -- They asked "Why?!?" One issue that WI advocates had to face, and will continue to face, is that train travel has shrunk to the point where many people have no contact with train transport, or mass transit, in general, and they will ask why they should pay for something which doesn't directly benefit them every day, all the time.

I've met others who are sold on it -- for some itineraries. Others refuse to do anything other than fly or drive, and those can be the toughest to convince otherwise. How are we to advocate for expanded train service in a population that knows little other than driving or flying ?

I try to grow the passion by taking the train whenever the opportunity presents itself, but it can be tough when one lives in an area where a large segment of the population sees no value in spending money on any other form of transportation other than highways.

 

[printman2000]

I also run into the problem of families with three (or more) kids. Having three kids makes sleeper space a challenge. They would need (on Superliners) a family room and a roomette. If the kids are too big for the family room, then things get really complicated and expensive).

 

[Dan O]

I try to encourage possible travelers with the idea of taking the train. Some are interested but other than my own kids, none have done it that I know of. One person that I don't know that well asked a lot of questions and was looking to buy tickets but something happened and they had to cancel the trip completely. So...I try but it's a bit like preaching in that a few will listen but very few will swim the Tiber.

Dan

 

[Railroad Bill]

I do a lot of Amtrak promoting wherever I go. I have done programs at our local library that sold out our room with over 80 people. Many of them took trips and loved it.

I organized an genealogy trip for our local chapter to Salt Lake City on the CZ and we had a blast. Many of our friends now have Amtrak Guest Rewards memberships and a few took the Chase MC and are now accumulating points.

It is true that most people didnt know you could take the train from Cleveland and go almost anywhere. As Al mentioned, our 2 and 3 am starting times in CLE are not a great sell, but the free parking and locked gates helps a lot. Plus the CLE agents are always friendly and helpful.

Amtrak needs some good TV ads to spark interest as well. :help:

 

[busboy]

It might help if Amtrak did some advertising. I've never seen an ad on TV in the Charlotte area. I think lots of people would ride the train to Raliegh, Atlanta, Washington and maybe even New York if they knew it existed. Most people I talk to don't even know trains come thru our city.

 

[had8ley]

Good move Al ! I don't think we're going to have much luck getting people to board in Slidell after this week. Unfortunately, the town is going all out for Train day.

 

[OlympianHiawatha]

It might help if Amtrak did some advertising. I've never seen an ad on TV in the Charlotte area. I think lots of people would ride the train to Raliegh, Atlanta, Washington and maybe even New York if they knew it existed. Most people I talk to don't even know trains come thru our city.

Amtrak runs ads in the University of Oklahoma student paper from time to time advertising fares on the Heartland Flyer route as well as to connecting cities, including Chicago, New York and Los Angeles. I do believe someone in their advertising department realizes college students are a prime market. Unfortunately, many students I know are still surprised to find out there is a passenger train serving Norman, but of the ones who have ridden it, most are hooked and anxious to travel Amtrak again.

 

[transit54]

Now, I probably have it a bit easier since I live on a line that's corridor service (even if the train only leaves and arrives once a day), but I'm known amongst my friends and coworkers for strongly encouraging train travel whenever possible. One thing I enjoy doing is organizing trips to Waterbury and Montpelier (two towns south of Burlington about 35 and 45 min away, respectively) to try out different restaurants in the evening. Since the train leaves in the morning, we take a commuter bus down to Waterbury or Montpelier, have dinner, drink and take the train back up to Essex Jct, where we can catch a bus to Burlington. I head down to the Alchemist- a fantastic brewpub in Waterbury every few weeks this way. The train is usually everyone's favorite part of the trip and I've even been told, "The train ride was too short!"

I'm also organizing a trip down to the Brattleboro Brewfest next month and recently convinced my girlfriend to start taking the train to see me (which she was resistant to do until she realized how much she was spending on gas). The state of VT has also been making this easy by offering $12 in-state flat fares.

All in all, it's great to pull of the Amtrak ridership numbers each month and know that I had a small part in the increase!

 

[amamba]

I had lots of people asking me about my train trip and following my blog when I went cross country earlier this year. Most people thought it was very interesting, and I got a lot of folks who said, "I always wanted to do something like that."

It is probably an easier sell up here as we get amtrak ads on TV and most people are quite familiar with the acela, etc.