Passenger Trains > Lack of Earthquake Info: Capitol Corridor Responds

Following the August 23, 2014 earthquake centered near American Canyon, Napa County, California, media reports suggested that the Capitol Corridor service had been suspended and would not be operating, including service to the afternoon 49'ers game in Santa Clara. I looked in vain on the Capitol Corridor website several times on that day in an effort to obtain information on when service might be expected to resume. To my disappointment, the earthquake was not even acknowledged on the website, which thus not only failed to provide any updates but suggested the service was operating normally. Service finally resumed at approximately 6pm, while the highway system continued to operate largely without interruption.

I conveyed my dissatisfaction to the Capitol Corridor team via the contact opportunity offered on the website, and indicated I ranked their their failure to provide website updates in this electronic age with a grade of "F". This was personally disappointing to me given the usual attentiveness to good service by the Capitol Corridor, and I let them know that.

I am pleased to now have received the following response. It's so much better than what one would receive from Amtrak or many other agencies:



Thank you for submitting feedback regarding Capitol Corridor's
communications in the aftermath of the earthquake on Sunday, August 24,
2014. We regret that information was not posted directly on the Capitol
Corridor website and apologize for this oversight.
>
After being informed of the suspension of service, staff responsible for
communications immediately began responding to media inquiries, and
communicated the service suspension via our electronic newsletter, text
messaging service, call center, and social media platforms, as well as on
electronic station signs. Throughout the day, we continued to update
passengers via the electronic newsletter and social media; however, in our
diligence to provide ongoing updates via these unusually busy channels
and respond to the many inquiries that came in via Twitter and from the media,
we neglected to update the service alert section of our web site.
>
Understanding that not all of our passengers have access to, or are
signed
up to receive, our electronic newsletter, we should have updated the web
site immediately; normally, this is our first course of action. Again, we
apologize for the oversight and the inconvenience it caused. We have
reviewed our protocols, and in the event of another emergency, you can be
assured that we will have information and updates available on our
website!
>
Yours sincerely,
>
> Karen Bakar
> Capitol Corridor Staff



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/29/14 13:28 by reindeerflame.

Thanks for doing that, RF. I also felt their response was lacking yet uncharacteristic. I'm glad to read the response too, and would bet money (based on my association with them) that this won't happen again.

AJ



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/29/14 14:48 by AmtrakJulie.

Nice to see they made a mistake and will attempt to do better in the future. They really should have started getting the media more informed from the beginning too. I was watching both of the Sacramento TV stations that provided continuous coverage (Channel 3 and 10) for almost four hours (6-10 AM) that morning and the only thing I heard was something vague like "the train to the 49'ers stadium today is cancelled today". A regular or casual Capitol Corridor rider wouldn't necessarily equate that with ALL Capitol Corridor service being suspended. I'm sure if CC management would have made it clear to media that it was all service, it would have been passed on several times. About 10 AM I decided to check the website to see what kind of info was there and was amazed to find ZILCH! Surprising indeed because as several people have mentioned these folks are usually pretty good about communicating with riders. Oh well…a lesson learned by all I guess. Hopefully it will be a while before they have to put what they learned in practice!

If the proper message was placed on the web, that may have reduced the number of Media Calls, along with better info being provided by the Media.

mundo Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> If the proper message was placed on the web, that
> may have reduced the number of Media Calls, along
> with better info being provided by the Media.

No, the media would have still called to verify the info.

They sent me the EXACT same email after I contacted them via the website, too.

Really hard to understand how they could do this, UNLESS they have a bunch of young teenagers in charge of communicating & PR (texting, Twittering, SnapChatting, etc.). Then I'd understand... :-)

coach Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> They sent me the EXACT same email after I
> contacted them via the website, too.
>
> Really hard to understand how they could do this,
> UNLESS they have a bunch of young teenagers in
> charge of communicating & PR (texting, Twittering,
> SnapChatting, etc.). Then I'd understand... :-)

Probably not teenagers, more like very recent college graduates working as interns.
After all, they KNOW social media.

That was, indeed, a good response from the Capitol Corridor people. I suspect that they were really scrambling that morning, especially with the service to the 49ers game being such a big deal, and someone took their eye off the ball.

Incidentally, I can confirm that they sent email updates throughout the day,

PHall Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> coach Wrote:
> -------------------------------------------------------
> > They sent me the EXACT same email after I contacted them via the website, too.
> >
> > Really hard to understand how they could do this, UNLESS they have a bunch of young teenagers in
> > charge of communicating & PR (texting, Twittering, SnapChatting, etc.). Then I'd understand...
> :-)
>
> Probably not teenagers, more like very recent college graduates working as interns.
> After all, they KNOW social media.

I think you'll see more of this in the future - the old channels (used by old people, what?) will fall into disuse as the new ones take over. There MUST be an app. for this. I mean, really, who actually uses a wired computer running a web browser any more? A tablet with Wi-Fi or a smartphone are all anyone needs to run their entire life now.

illini73 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> PHall Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > coach Wrote:
> >
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > > They sent me the EXACT same email after I
> contacted them via the website, too.
> > >
> > > Really hard to understand how they could do
> this, UNLESS they have a bunch of young teenagers
> in
> > > charge of communicating & PR (texting,
> Twittering, SnapChatting, etc.). Then I'd
> understand...
> > :-)
> >
> > Probably not teenagers, more like very recent
> college graduates working as interns.
> > After all, they KNOW social media.
>
> I think you'll see more of this in the future -
> the old channels (used by old people, what?) will
> fall into disuse as the new ones take over. There
> MUST be an app. for this. I mean, really, who
> actually uses a wired computer running a web
> browser any more? A tablet with Wi-Fi or a
> smartphone are all anyone needs to run their
> entire life now.

illini73 ---
EXCUUUUUSE me?? How awful that you seem not
to give a damn about the needs of so-called "old people"!
For shame! If you live long enough, you, too, will
become one of those "old people", whose needs
are just as important as yours. And those "old channels"
are just as important as all those new ones. And there
are a lot of "old people".

Sheesh.......

Agreed. Capitol Corridor should have done better updating the service alerts section of the website... but they did a masterful job on social media both posting updates and directly responding to passenger questions:

@CapitolCorridor · 8:45 AM - 24 Aug 2014
Service temporarily suspended between Roseville and San Jose due to post-quake UP track inspection.

@CapitolCorridor · 8:59 AM - 24 Aug 2014
.@eastgoeswest Service between Roseville and San Jose is suspended until further notice.

@CapitolCorridor · 2:58 PM - 24 Aug 2014
Service btwn Sac & Emy/SF should resume @ approx. 3pm today. Rest of line, later today.

@CapitolCorridor · 4:41 PM - 24 Aug 2014
UPDATE: Service btwn Sac and Oakland Coliseum has resumed. Expect service to resume btwn Hayward and San Jose by 7pm tonight.

@CapitolCorridor · 5:30 PM - 24 Aug 2014
.@mmaxtg To get to SJ, you can take CC to Rich, then BART to Fremont, then VTA to SJ.

@CapitolCorridor · 6:39 PM - 24 Aug 2014
.@hellophia Train 749 is cancelled. The next train out of Sac departs 9:10, train 751.

@CapitolCorridor · 7:10 PM - 24 Aug 2014
.@MelissaCrowley This is the plan, but we will provide additional update later this evening.

@CapitolCorridor · 8:08 PM - 24 Aug 2014
.@j_la28 we are expecting normal service tomorrow, but we will continue to provide updates. Thanks for your patience!

@CapitolCorridor · 8:34 PM - 24 Aug 2014
Train service has now been restored throughout the line, but please expect residual delays. Thank you for your patience!

For those of you who aren't twitter users... these are just the tweets that Capitol Corridor made public... and doesn't include any private messages or replies that were not published for all to see.

I know that many of the people aren't big fans of twitter but it's a very useful way to interact with agencies in situations like this. In the future, you can always read messages from the Capitol Corridor without a Twitter account at: http://twitter.com/CapitolCorridor

Ricky Courtney
Seattle, WA

rickycourtney Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Agreed. Capitol Corridor should have done better
> updating the service alerts section of the
> website... but they did a masterful job on social
> media both posting updates and directly responding
> to passenger questions:
>
> @CapitolCorridor · 8:45 AM - 24 Aug 2014
> Service temporarily suspended between Roseville
> and San Jose due to post-quake UP track
> inspection.
>
> @CapitolCorridor · 8:59 AM - 24 Aug 2014
> .@eastgoeswest Service between Roseville and San
> Jose is suspended until further notice.
>
> @CapitolCorridor · 2:58 PM - 24 Aug 2014
> Service btwn Sac & Emy/SF should resume @ approx.
> 3pm today. Rest of line, later today.
>
> @CapitolCorridor · 4:41 PM - 24 Aug 2014
> UPDATE: Service btwn Sac and Oakland Coliseum has
> resumed. Expect service to resume btwn Hayward and
> San Jose by 7pm tonight.
>
> @CapitolCorridor · 5:30 PM - 24 Aug 2014
> .@mmaxtg To get to SJ, you can take CC to Rich,
> then BART to Fremont, then VTA to SJ.
>
> @CapitolCorridor · 6:39 PM - 24 Aug 2014
> .@hellophia Train 749 is cancelled. The next train
> out of Sac departs 9:10, train 751.
>
> @CapitolCorridor · 7:10 PM - 24 Aug 2014
> .@MelissaCrowley This is the plan, but we will
> provide additional update later this evening.
>
> @CapitolCorridor · 8:08 PM - 24 Aug 2014
> .@j_la28 we are expecting normal service tomorrow,
> but we will continue to provide updates. Thanks
> for your patience!
>
> @CapitolCorridor · 8:34 PM - 24 Aug 2014
> Train service has now been restored throughout the
> line, but please expect residual delays. Thank you
> for your patience!
>
> For those of you who aren't twitter users... these
> are just the tweets that Capitol Corridor made
> public... and doesn't include any private messages
> or replies that were not published for all to
> see.
>
> I know that many of the people aren't big fans of
> twitter but it's a very useful way to interact
> with agencies in situations like this. In the
> future, you can always read messages from the
> Capitol Corridor without a Twitter account at:
> http://twitter.com/CapitolCorridor

So with the first weekend CC train out of Sacramento at 5:40 AM & the one originating at Auburn out at about 8 AM it still took it until 8:45 AM to get the first tweet out? Considering that the earthquake happened at 3:20 and decisions to cancel had to be made before those first departures I'm not sure that Twitter response is that impressive either. Twitter is of course only one part of the equation. Clearly informing the media ASAP and updating the website ASAP are the other parts. I'm reasonably sure that we'll see a big improvement from the normally very responsible CC management team next time…and as a Northern California resident I do hope that "next time" (major earthquake speaking) will be a LONG time away…like after I've gone to that big roundhouse in the sky!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/30/14 12:21 by johnw.

Margret,

I think you missed the tongue in cheek of the post, or at least that is the way I read it. It made me smile. Maybe we should try to get the powers that be here at train orders to give us smileys so when we want to communicate humor, sarcasm and such we would have a way. Some where I belonged to one forum and one of the smileys was to smileys beating a dead horse, we could use that around here a lot.

The response to the email that was sent was a breath of fresh air to see someone admit that they made a mistake. But on that morning I bet it was the old story "that when you are up to your a** in alligators it is hard to remember the whole reason that you came to the swamp in the first place was to drain IT!"

Keep Smiling
Andre

Andre Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Margret,
>
> I think you missed the tongue in cheek of the
> post, . . .

Oops, I forgot the "just kidding" emoticon: ;-). Sorry Margaret.

But I still think this incident is a harbinger of things to come. The cited e-mail basically said "Oops. We were too busy twittering to update the website. Sorry, won't happen again." But it will happen again. I don't think the tipping point has been reached (yet), but with an increasing proportion of internet traffic originated by mobile devices, it will be reached soon. The experience level required of corporate communications staff also means the "communicators" will increasingly be people who've lived off their smartphones for years.

Maybe CCJPA could hire some retirees looking for part-time jobs to help out (former rail commuters, ideally). I'll be eligible for Social Security myself before too long and would enjoy such work.

illini72 --
Thanks so much for the apology. I appreciate
that! How was I or anyone supposed to be able
to tell that what you said was tongue-in-cheek?
There was simply no way to tell -- when all one
has to go on is just words on a computer screen.
BTW -- no fancy emoticons are needed -- just a
simple "j/k" after your post, or "sarcasm on" before
your post and "sarcasm off" after your post.

Again, I really appreciate your apology -- it takes a
big man to admit when he is wrong. Thank you.

I though you were relatively young, as I thought
the "73" in your screen name was your birth year --
which would make you only 41, and thus it would
be entirely understandable -- but quite regrettable --
for someone that age to hold such age-ist beliefs.
What a relief I was wrong! :) (That is a "smiley"
that is usually understood as the same as the happy
face it will render as in some programs.)

Margaret
(An "old person" -- and proud of it! :) )