March 16, 2016 was a very bad day for transit riders.
Two major transit agencies – Washington DC’s WMATA and San Francisco’s BART – both stopped service.
Unexplained voltage spikes on BART’s longest line took 50 railcars out of service, closing a section of tracks for several days and disrupting service for almost a month. In the nation’s capital, WMATA General Manager Paul Wiedefeld closed the entire Metro system on a weekday so workers could perform emergency inspections of third rail power cables – cables that were responsible for a service-crippling tunnel fire earlier in the week.
Riders were understandably upset and used social media to voice their frustrations. But unlike WMATA, BART turned this anger into momentum for an upcoming transit referendum (which passed with flying colors).
Social media platforms offer transit agencies many benefits, such as the ability to quickly convey service information and advertise their systems. But with this opportunity comes substantial risk, as sites such as Twitter and Facebook also serve to amplify negativity surrounding American transit. Studies have found that many transit providers face greater online hostility than even widely disliked entities such as the IRS or airlines.
Obviously, this has to change. By looking at the differing cyber-communications strategies of WMATA and BART – two major U.S. agencies with aging rail systems –during a day of crisis, we can identify important lessons for transit officials to consider.
BART: From crisis to conversation
As rail service melted down, BART knew that the situation necessitated more than typical delay announcements: the agency’s communications director handed control of the agency’s @SFBART Twitter feed to her deputy, Taylor Huckaby, who quickly began acknowledging upset passengers while explaining the reality of the situation.
Huckaby made it clear that, though the agency was doing everything it could to resolve the situation, the existing system simply was not built to handle modern-day crowds and properly accommodating them would take years of improvements. He made sure to mention that a $3.5 billion ballot measure to help bring BART to a state of good repair was on the ballot that November.
The conversation Huckaby started quickly spread. As BART’s #ThisIsOurReality trended on Twitter, other transit agencies expressed solidarity via their own social-media accounts, and public-relations experts hailed BART’s efforts.
BART continues to use Twitter as a forum for positive discussion of important issues. Recent tweets highlight not only the system’s importance to Bay Area transportation, but steps the agency is taking to address societal issues such as homelessness and crime.
But they know how to have fun, too: in August 2017, @SFBART posted a poem shaming a rider who ate a bowl of oatmeal and shaved on a train, leading to a poetry showdown with Los Angeles Metro’s Twitter feed that highlighted issues such as pot smokers aboard transit, among others. It served as the sequel to a fierce haiku battle between the two agencies a year earlier.
Oh, and that ballot measure Huckaby mentioned? It passed with over 70 percent of the vote. And when engaging its riders today, @SFBART actively highlights the improvements that the new funds will pay for.
WMATA: A missed opportunity, but not a lost cause
Late on the afternoon of March 15, WMATA announced its systemwide shutdown via a press conference, press release, and the system’s Twitter accounts. The announcements provided accurate information about the service disruption and described the limited alternative transportation options available.
But as the predictable flurry of critical replies came in, WMATA officials did not engage their customers as BART did.
Instead, the agency issued generic updates on the disruption, announcing that the system was set to re-open on the 17th. Although @SFBART began its Twitter conversations on the evening of the 16th, the WMATA Twitter did not tie California’s discourse to Metro’s shutdown or show solidarity with BART, as other transit agencies did.
As a result, the conversation was dominated by the same negative voices that have jabbed at WMATA for years. Anonymous @unsuckdcmetro (perhaps the best known such voice) tweeted nearly 100 times during the event. His tweets included a denouncement of the capital investment that funded the purchase of Metro’s new 7000-series railcars and a misleading statement indicating that WMATA had dedicated funding at the time.
Needless to say, the Unsuck narrative did not inspire the public to rally for transit improvements. WMATA’s ridership dropped 12 percent in the months following the shutdown, and remaining rail riders’ customer satisfaction rates also plummeted. In June 2017, a little over a year after the shutdown, the agency had to reduce rail and bus services due to the resulting revenue shortfall.
Unfortunately, the continuing cyber negativity has overshadowed a number of positive steps WMATA has taken in recent years. Aggressive track construction initiatives have caused short-term disruptions for riders, but the infrastructure renewal and the new railcars have helped improve system reliability. The improvements helped convince D.C., Maryland, and Virginia legislators to – after decades of bickering – finally agree on a dedicated funding plan.
For transit to be lovable, agencies need to connect with riders on social media
WMATA’s cyber-challenges underscore how difficult it is for a cash-strapped transit agency to thrive in an increasingly tech-based world, but BART’s unscripted tweets offer us a glimpse of the solution.
As D.C.’s Metro continues to rebound and other cities look to improve their own systems, use of social media will be integral to agencies’ efforts to forge connections with their riders. WMATA’s online persona already is more relatable than it was during the 2016 shutdown, as exemplified by the agency’s light-hearted publicity of a new Metro souvenir shop and daily reports on rush-hour on-time performance.
The next step for transit agencies will entail becoming as integrated a part of their cities’ virtual realities as they are a part of their physical ones. To do this, their social-media accounts need to be versatile, charismatic, and unscripted, casually interacting with riders while continuing to convey the important information the public depends on from them.
BART has taken meaningful steps in this direction and, as the transit agency serving Silicon Valley, could serve as a tech-savvy model for other agencies to follow.
Photo by nevermindtheend.