Citizens’ Rail’s academic team gave a presentation today at the European Conference on Mobility Management (ECOMM 2015) in Utrecht.
In a positive example of transnational working, Nick Davies (University of Central Lancashire, UK), Marco Trienes (RWTH Aachen University, Germany) and Dominik Elsmann (formerly of RWTH Aachen University, now at Aachen’s transport authority, AVV) spoke on the topic of “Understanding Citizens’ Rail: how marketing and social outreach can encourage involvement by the public in their rail services and change attitudes towards rail” (see slides below).
Their key messages included the need for less complex, more flexible ticketing, more human presence at stations, the success of the marketing of interventions (75% of respondents had heard of the local improvements taking place as part of the Citizens’ Rail project), and the importance of involving people in local railways.
The presentation formed part of the “Understanding the user” session at the conference.
And here is some reaction on Twitter from a Belgian attendee at the conference:
Citizens' Rail uses volunteers to make local railway stations more comfortable and welcoming places. http://t.co/lP317ZbTcU #ecomm2015
— Sarah Martens (@martens_sarah) May 22, 2015
