It is important to connect with the public on a meaningful level, and not just because they're paying in part for your operation. Too many transit agencies in North America operate undistinctly branded features: "the bus", or "the train" with no distinct marketing, painting, or branding.
Sure, a lack of infrastructure comes in to play with some of these problems, but often times (like at New York's Penn Station), the infrastructure is there, there simply isn't anyone taking advantage of the opportunities it poses. For example, notice specifically the top of the photo below. A young, newly wed woman tossing her flowers out of a national train carriage. What a beautiful, human thing to do. The caption reads "way better every day."
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| Praha hlavní nádraží (Prague main station) |
Aside from the beautiful and functional design with colors and informative displays, there are also other ways for transportation to brand its products and services. Sound can also play a great role in branding the features of transportation. How many people living in Budapest, Hungary cannot recognize the below sound?
The jingle plays before all train announcments are spoken at Budapest Keleti station. This seems to be only at one station; however, throughout the country of France, the following jingle plays before all national train announcements countrywide. It's the SNCF (Société nationale des chemins de fer français, or national society of French railways) jingle.
A hyper example of jingles for branding and meaningful connections can be found throughout Asia - for example, Japan and South Korea. Many of the JR (Japan Railways) lines throughout the Tokyo, Japan area even have a seperate jingle for each station. Maihama (the Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo Disney Sea rail station) plays short musical renditions of Disney songs whenever train announcements are announced. The popular Yamanote line, which operates in a circle, has different and distinct jingles for many of its stations. Not only does this provide a connection to riders, it makes it very easy to identify which station you are at if you aren't fluent in reading kanji. There are far too many of these to link to here, but a YouTube search can bring up hundreds of them.
What about speech? While it's typically the least interesting and unique, even text or speech can have meaningful connections to people. Ever heard of the saying "mind the gap"? It's free advertisement for your agency (in this case, the London Underground or "tube"), and is known worldwide.
None of this is to say that examples of excellent branding and meaningful human connections can't be found in the United States, but Amtrak and Via Rail stations are among the dullest and most monotone rail stations I have utilized worldwide. "All aboard" isn't spoken with joy or welcoming - it's spoken with a bland professionalism and lust for a real rail system almost as if to reminisce or romanticize of past times when rail played a meaningful role in transporting.
The first step to creating interest in public transport in North America certainly isn't creating jingles, but it makes the system real and is a piece of the puzzle. It can be employed on or off transit - Bratislava, Slovakia's tram system doesn't have actual stations like national railway companies, but instead uses sound to convey attention to passengers on board the vehicle at station announcements, like in the video below.
Let's keep it sexy!
