Wednesday, June 27, 2012
I've reached critical mass where I can tie together some otherwise disparate topics into a nice thematic bundle.
Let's start with the straw that broke the camel's back. Via rail will be cutting service. I'm going to have to side with the employee quoted in the article who noted that "We don’t see any marketing down here in the East to get more people out to travel by train." Granted, I don't currently live in Canada right now, and even if I did, I don't watch television (though I suppose I might get cable again when I reunite with the family). But when I DO watch television, I certainly never see a Via rail commercial. There was a seat sale going on right around the time I was looking at travel options for a wedding in May. By the time I found out about the seat sale, the train was sold out. But isn't that evidence of marketing success? No, not really. I had visited the Via website just over a month earlier, before the sale began, and saw no indication of it. So if it's not widely advertised, the people who got the discounted tickets were people who regularly take the train anyways. Potential new customers just saw the same old full-fare tickets, and moved on. Well played, Via. I also wanted to clarify something from the article, should you read it:
There will also be a number reductions in southwestern Ontario, where GO Transit and other services are available to commuters. London, Aldershot, Kitchener, Niagara Falls and other cities will see reduced Via service.
This suggests that the listed cities have GO Transit and other services. London and Kitchener are not on the GO Transit line, so the "other services" are, um ... Greyhound (same price for half the comfort and maybe even a beheading) or the exorbitantly-priced flights out of the London airport (four times the price for same comfort and maybe a cavity search). The price calculations are based on actual ticket prices from London to Toronto for the same dates. Look, I'm no marketer, but there's an ad campaign right there. How this particular crown corporation can't run profitably is beyond me.
As you can tell, I like the train. I was never the sort of kid that winds up as a character in the sort of book that shows up in your English lit class. You know, the book that starts off with a boy; some troubles at home; likes to pass time at the rail yard? Maybe befriends a hobo? But rail is the way to go for moving stuff and people around. The Chicago area is served by two rail systems, and I'm fortunate to live near stations for both of them. My favourite is the Metra. John and I took the Metra a couple times this past weekend. It's an interesting place to people-watch. And you know what we learned on the Metra ride to the Ravinia festival to see Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers? We learned that Steve Martin's fan-base is a fancy bunch. In contrast to the previous day where we witnessed the open and unapologetic consumption of Coors Lite on the train, people en route to the concert were instead drinking Perrier water and craft beers. And once they got to the venue:
That, incidentally, was one of the least ostentatious set-ups. We saw 10 foot dining tables set up with linens and candelabras. For a picnic at an outdoor concert.
Now, about that hobo...
Trust me. Click the link. It's CBC comedy.
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3 comments:
the only way to actully have any sort of aheads up on VIA seat sales.. eg.. 75% off for travel on Canada Day book by tomorrow.. I only got the message today] is to have a VIA preference # which I do and having acumulated enough points to travel to W&T's a couple times ...however what I would actually prefer is to be able to get to Chicago by train from here!too bad that option was discontinued.. no clue how many more trains they can cancel from London pop over 350,000 because we don't sell out every seat every train every day! as you pointed out their marketing sucks you want to move your product you hve to promote it and make people believe they need it!
spelling optional
I'm way behind the times here, but apparently so are you if your last post was in June.
Anyway, they are cutting the bus service out east as well as the limited train service, so we have no idea how they expect students to get back to school...
And the only VIA commercials I've ever seen do not depict trains that I've ever been on. Actual VIA trains do not seem to be tv worthy.
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