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People who have never experienced the shear wonderfulness of traveling from A to B without stress, with faith in the provider to get you there, and the laid-back wonder of actually enjoying the trip, the things Amtrak generally offers- would never understand why Amtrak is worth the extra cost and time.
 
Speaking of amtrak ads - when I was in NYC I did the Empire State Building and in the elevator there's a little screen that displays some informational stuff and some short video clip ads. One of the ads was for Chevy, can't remember the others but one was for Acela.

I didn't expect to see it there! I think it was 'Our cabins are always depressurized' but I'm not 100% sure. It's only a few seconds long (after all you're not in that elevator for all that long), but i thought it was quite neat.
 
I see ads all the time on the TV and on the radio. Granted I'm in a prime market, NYC, but Amtrak does advertise. Both currently and in the past. I often see a comercial during the 11 PM news on NBC. Many of the comercials are of course for Acela, but I do on occasion see/hear a comercial for the LD's too.
 
As more and more airlines go under and the cost of flying and driving get further out of hand, I look for scores of new riders to discover Amtrak. It will be up to Amtrak to put their best foot forward to make a good experience for these new riders. A good well designed ad campaign is in order.
 
I think Amtrak should get something going... Seeing the mess just on the NBC Nightly News about American Airline, I am sooo glad I am not flying anywhere.. I just can't imagin the mess it is at the airport, and people has to be super stressed out!
 
I have NYTimes.com set as my homepage, and I see Acela ads several times a day. Haven't seen any other Amtrak advertising, other than the full page ad for National Train Day on the rear cover of this past month's Trains.

Generally everything is on target, except I'd take some exception to: "Say goodbye to tiny packets of peanuts and greasy drive-through menus; say hello to more appealing food choices. "

For LD trains, I think this is a great point. But on a lot of corridor service I just find very little appealing in the Cafe car. The bagels are decent and some of the muffins are excellent, but there's really nothing great on there that would provide a hearty lunch or dinner, which is tough when you're on 8-11 hour trains (Vermonter, Maple Leaf, Adirondack, I'm sure there's tons more, I just haven't ridden them). I'd love to see some more variety on the menus, and carry over a few of the better choices from the Acela, also.
 
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AlanB said:
I see ads all the time on the TV and on the radio. Granted I'm in a prime market, NYC, but Amtrak does advertise. Both currently and in the past. I often see a comercial during the 11 PM news on NBC. Many of the comercials are of course for Acela, but I do on occasion see/hear a comercial for the LD's too.
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In Providence also - but just for AE. I think I may have seen some (very few) commercials for "service to over 500 cities and towns" somewhere, but not recently.

With the high gas prices, I do think it's time for a good ad campaign.
 
Faraz said:
It is great ad, but it is too logical, but people aren't logical...
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Actually, if Amtrak would borrow a leaf from the company that about getting first class service on a plane for the price of coach, I can see a very appealing and logical ad. Imagine cutting from the scene of a family serenely watching the scenery going by their dining window to the scene of the same family crunched into the plane seats watching a horrible movie.
 
DesertRat said:
Faraz said:
It is great ad, but it is too logical, but people aren't logical...
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Actually, if Amtrak would borrow a leaf from the company that about getting first class service on a plane for the price of coach, I can see a very appealing and logical ad. Imagine cutting from the scene of a family serenely watching the scenery going by their dining window to the scene of the same family crunched into the plane seats watching a horrible movie.
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As one who works for the before-mentioned company, I agree completely. In fact, I was just on another site and we had a vertical banner ad running down the side and I was thinking, "Why don't I see these from Amtrak?"

Far too many people in this country consider two options - driving and flying. Taking the train needs to be in people's minds. For all the advertising that we do, much of our success is built on word of mouth referrals and (with the exception of that incident two Februarys ago) very positive media coverage. Amtrak gets a little media play, but it's mostly about appropriations and such things, not the actual rail service.

I recently had a friend ask me if I thought it would be cheaper for him and his father to fly or drive between Vermont and Minneapolis. They were thinking of driving shifts around the clock. My reply was, what about taking the train?

I think what Amtrak needs to do is really relaunch a few of its routes. And I don't mean like they did with the EB and will be with the CS. I mean like they did with the Acela on the NEC. (Now I know they don't have the money for this, but hear me out) What they need to do is get some new, very modern looking equipment - sleepers and diners included and put it on some major routes that see a lot of air and car travel. They can then use this new equipment and re-branded service to obtain significant media play, and they should couple this with sales for a few weeks to get new people to try out the routes (and these should include sleepers, also). This is straight out of our playbook - do a search in google news for "E190" and you'll see a handful of stories about us flying smaller airplanes out to the west coast. Nevermind that we've had these planes in the east for a few years, we're using them to get significant media play in the west just by flying them around to advertise a few new routes.

I'd love to see Amtrak tour a new LD trainset around, coupled with increased frequency and fare sales on some routes. As I mentioned on a previous post, we shuttle thousands of people everyday between Florida and the Northeast. A significant portion of these people could be converted to trains if Amtrak could launch a coordinated campaign and put trains in the minds of the traveling public.

Also, I hear a lot of people complain about the cost of sleepers, but they don't want to sleep in coach overnight (or, usually, they'd rather fly than do it). I have a trip to Russia planed for next month and will be taking an overnight train between St Petersburg and Moscow. They offer rooms similar to Amtrak's offerings, but they also offer configurations like four beds per room for the budget traveler (obviously the other beds are filled with random people). I was thinking what if Amtrak could order equipment with airline-style lie-flat seats, which they could charge a premium for. I'd gladly pay $50-100 to lie (semi)flat and sleep in coach rather than either have to buy a roomette or sleep upright in coach.

What Amtrak really needs is some innovation and about a billion to get upgrade their fleet and revitalize their service (among many other improvements). With the airline industry in havoc and the recent concern about being "green," now is the time for passenger rail in this country to stage a major comeback.
 
I have constantly said Amtrak needs to either offer a second-class slumbercoach-type offering, a sectional sleeper, or both.
 
Thank you, rnizlek, for what I think is a thoughtful and comprehensive post.

On one point, I also often hear complaints about sleeper costs, usually from folks who are not clear on the concept. Often - not always - they take a more positive view when I ask them to think of an LD sleeper as a rolling hotel, meals included, which relieves them from both the hassle of flying (particularly timely these days), or the drudgery of driving, and gets them where they wanna go rested instead of harried, and with scenic experiences unavailable by any other means.
 
"Ads, Finally, Amtrak"

:huh: ?? I don't know where this "Amtrak doesn't advertise" meme comes from.

I frequently see ads for Amtrak in the daily Chicago Sun-Times and the weekly Chicago Reader. I've also seen Amtrak billboards at various times along the suburban toll-roads.

The newspaper ads mention travel to national (that is, long-distance) as well as Midwestern destinations, so it's not just a state-sponsored or corridor-only thing. The nearly-half-page color ad in today's (Thursday, April 10th) Sun-Times gives sample fares (from Chicago) to Seattle, Los Angeles, Washington DC, and New York City as well as to Saint Louis and Detroit.
 
From time to time Amtrak will put a medium size ad in the University of Oklahoma student paper with sample fares for the Heartland Flyer including connecting fares to distant cities such as LA or Chicago.
 
ALOHA

If you think about the goals of advertising, They would not place many ads where we would see them as we are already sold on Amtrak :)
 
Here in SoCal, there are lots of Amtrak ads on TV. One prominent one shows a dad with a window on his left and his arm outstretched as if he were holding a steering wheel. They pan out with the camera and he leans back with his daughter and is reading the newspaper watching scenery go by.

I think it's a pretty good juxtaposition of driving vs riding the train, The ad ends with a nice low price on a city pair in CA.

Since the state of CA subsidizes Amtrak service in this state, I bet that's where the ad $ comes from.
 
Jim in Michigan said:
I toured Fenway park a few weeks ago and Amtrak had advertising there.
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While watching the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (gimme a break) play the BoSox at Fenway the other day on TV, I also saw Amtrak ads. Two of them behind the plate. On the left was a pic of an Acela, with the headline "Acela Express." On the right (looking toward the plate on TV) was also an Acela pic, with the headline "Amtrak.com."
 
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