The Situation
As the New Mexico Rail Runner Express entered its sixth year of service, a small but vocal group campaigned to have the Rail Runner shut down. The group claimed it was a waste of taxpayers money and it wasn’t needed. So we developed a campaign to highlight the importance of the train and educate the community that this commuter rail system is an investment in our future. We reminded the public that our traffic will continue to get worse. In 20-years, it will take twice as long to drive from Albuquerque to Santa Fe. There is only one road between the two cities and there are no plans to widen it or build news ones. The Rail Runner Express is the only other alternative. So even if you don’t ride the train today, just think about how important it will be for the next generation.
What We Did
We recruited a dozen children to be part of the television, print and outdoor advertisements. The kids range in age from three to 10 years old and are dressed in outfits that reflect the profession they want to be as adults. They were nurses, doctors, airline pilots, firefighters and business professionals. We felt these kids could bring our message home better than anyone else. After all, these children are our future riders and will be faced with the traffic congestion problems in the future. While the main objective of this campaign was to educate and inform, we also wanted people to know that they don’t have to wait until the future to ride the train. They can start today. So we also wanted to increase ridership during the course of this campaign.
What We Achieved
This campaign ran from December 2012 through March 2013. During that time, ridership increased from 74,739 boardings in December to 91,199 boardings in March (22% increase). But the main impact of this campaign is a better understanding that our system will be around for a long time to come and this train is an alternative to traffic congestion today and in the future.
According to a survey of riders and non-riders in April 2013, we found that 94.7% of people in our community are satisfied with the service that the New Mexico Rail Runner provides.