An easier problem for LIRR to fix
A Long Island Rail Road passenger talks on his cellphone as a westbound train approaches the Jamaica LIRR station. (Aug. 26, 2010) Credit: Kevin P. Coughlin
For the Long Island Rail Road, the news that 58 percent of its regular riders think it does an excellent or good job and only 15 percent rate service poor, according to a recent Newsday/Siena College poll, should be heartening. Even the bad news is, in a way, good, because one of the areas in which people think the LIRR fails, communicating with riders, should be easier and cheaper to fix than most issues would be.
The LIRR must embrace two things wholeheartedly: social media and the belief that passengers are grown-ups who deserve and can handle honest information when things go wrong.
The railroad has made strides, setting up a 24/7 public information office, a Twitter feed that has about 4,300 followers and an email and text alert system that has almost 50,000. Additionally, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's website gets regular updates and the LIRR is testing a program, Train Time, that will send messages to smartphones and laptops about exactly when trains are expected.
More could be done, though, by setting up and constantly updating separate Twitter streams by branch, and doing the same with Facebook pages. Just as important, a concerted effort must be made to tell riders about each of these services, and encourage them to sign up. In return, the riders have to monitor the information the LIRR sends out, and act in a responsible manner when trains are stuck or other emergencies arise.
Every organization has problems. It's nice to know that one of the LIRR's biggest challenges is quite fixable.
