California State Rail Plan 2005-06 to 2015-16

Chapter IV – Marketing Program
The Department coordinates its rail safety activities with California Operation
Lifesaver, the State affiliate of the national nonprofit organization. The State
organization is a coalition of railroads; Federal, State and local agencies (such as
the FRA, the CPUC, local police organizations and transit operators); and private
businesses and individuals concerned about promoting safety. The Department is
a member of the California Operation Lifesaver Board of Directors. Their major
focus is encouraging safe behavior at railroad grade crossings and discouraging,
for safety reasons, trespassing on railroad property.
MARKET RESEARCH
The Department contracts with Amtrak for $500,000 per year in market research
services. With the Department’s participation, Amtrak contracts with various
market research firms to measure customer attitudes, desires and preferences in
order to match services to customer needs. Past market research has included
seasonal on board surveys; telephone surveys of non-users; license plate surveys
to obtain data for ridership, modeling, and advertising; and promotion tracking
studies. Specifically, the Department has examined alternative family fare
structures, participated in Amtrak’s Pacific Coast Market Study conducted
research into the usage of the California Rail Pass, studied the Pacific Surfliners’
Pacific Business Class, surveyed Metrolink and Coaster users of the “Rail 2 Rail”
program, and performed the Pacific Surfliner parking analysis.
In addition, each year’s research plan includes a contingency fund designed to
conduct spot research on subjects that arise during the course of a given year.
In this category, the Department and Amtrak have conducted research on timetable
formats that resulted in a redesign of the State’s public timetable folders.
A branding exercise soliciting customer attitudes about the San Diegan brand
name and its possible replacements resulted in the new Pacific Surfliner name for
the corridor.
Rail Ridership/Revenue Forecasting Model
The Department contracts with Amtrak for operation and development of the
Rail Ridership/Revenue Forecasting Model. It is used by the Department, Amtrak
and CCJPA in conjunction with Amtrak’s consultant, AECOM Consult,
an affiliate of DMJM Harris, to estimate the ridership and revenue impacts of
major service changes, such as new services, route extensions or truncations,
frequency changes, and fare changes.
The first stage of the model predicts automobile and rail travel volumes for each
origin-destination pair. The second stage predicts the share of intercity travel that
is expected to use each available modal alternative (automobile, rail) in the future.
Both model stages are conditional on the characteristics of the modal services to
be offered and the characteristics of the population.
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