Metro Magazine

AUG 2014

Magazine serving the bus and rail transit & motorcoach operations since 1904

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8 < m ETRO m AGAZINE AUGUST 2014 metro-magazine.com prior to the festivities. "mTickets were just one of the ways people could buy their fares," Schupp said. "We also printed commemorative tickets that are always real popular with collectors. And, of course, ticket vending machines were the workhorse in terms of volume. But when it was all said and done, about 10% of our volume was in mTickets, which was a big success for our first year." To view METRO's San Diego MTS ser- vice at Comic Con 2014 photo gallery, visit http://bit.ly/MTSComicCon. In late July, it's not uncommon to see Klingons, Darth Vader, Spiderman and Wonder Woman all boarding the Trolley at the same time in downtown San Di- ego. Comic-Con — a five-day celebra- tion of popular art and entertainment at the annual convention along downtown San Diego's scenic bay front — attracts 130,000 attendees and the San Diego Metropolitan Transportation System's (MTS) Trolley system handles more than 215,000 extra passenger trips dur- ing the festivities. To help Comic-Con passengers avoid long Trolley ticket lines and provide a convenient ticket purchasing option, the MTS introduced mTicket — a mobile ticketing app that puts the Trolley tick- et vending machine in the pocket of the passenger. Mobile ticketing options are becom- ing more popular for transit agencies across the U.S., including the Massa- chusetts Bay Transportation Authori- ty, New Jersey Transit, Dallas Area Rap- id Transit and TriMet in Portland, Ore. Fare systems professionals predict that up to 25% of sales will eventually come through mobile ticketing options. MTS first introduced mTicket in 2013 for San Diego Chargers and San Diego State Aztec football games. Comic-Con was the third step for the mTicket pilot program in the San Diego market. "We thought this was a good tech-sav- vy audience and that many Comic-Con passengers would embrace this option," said Rob Schupp, director of marketing and communications at MTS. "The big- gest challenge was making them aware that mobile ticketing was available." The MTS marketing and communi- cations team used aggressive outreach tactics to boost awareness for mTicket leading up to Comic-Con week. mTick- et promotions began about two weeks ahead of Comic-Con, including clev- er comic-themed artwork for stations and ticket vending machines, adver- tisements in local papers, outdoor sig- nage at select Trolley stations, social me- dia sharing, blog posts through popular Comic-Con bloggers and on-air televi- sion network interviews. "Riding the Trolley to Comic-Con is always part of news coverage, but mTickets gave us a news hook that real- ly boosted coverage. We were on all the major television news station in San Di- ego," added Schupp. The marketing campaign paid off. There were more than 4,100 ticket sales transactions totaling nearly $58,800 in value. Sales started immediately after it was announced and took off two days metro news Mobile app helps MTS move San Diego Comic-Con attendees San Diego MTS began mTicket promotions about two weeks ahead of Comic-Con, including clever comic-themed artwork for stations and ticket vending machines. The event drew more than 130,000 people over fve days. CORRECTION In the July '14 "Contractor" story, pg. 26, the section on National Express' training practices should have said: "If somebody does something wrong, we want to correct the problem frst before taking disciplinary steps. If the problem persists, then disciplinary action will be taken," explains Tom Greufe. Another strategy used in the training was the elimination of discipline steps for any hazardous acts committed by an employee that was reported by other employees and to focus on corrective retraining and future prevention instead.

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