How Metra Ruined Its Best Community Engagement Tool
For more than 25 years, Metra, the commuter railroad in the Chicagoland area, has had a wonderful newsletter called On the Bi-Level. It used to be a fantastic tool for interacting with riders. The newsletter is printed every month and distributed on each train in the system. The best two parts of the newsletter used to be: "Sounding Board" was a forum for riders to ask Metra questions. Metra would write back with hilarious, sometimes snarky, responses. "Sound Off" was by far the best newsletter feature. Riders would write in to complain about fellow riders. The stories they told were incredibly entertaining. Here's one of my favorite submissions, from an August 2006 letter (featured in the absolutely awesome 25th anniversary issue ): "Today I saw an all-time first. ...A young brunette began fumbling with her purse, pulled out a can of aerosol hair spray and began spraying her hair. The man behind her gagged a bit but no one said a word. Unbelievab...