August Member Newsletter

Hello LAPassenger Members,
The monthly newsletter skipped a few months as I’ve been busy with the growth of the site and a complete functional re-design. Thanks to a fellow passenger who is a programmer, members now have complete ownership of their profiles.

You can log in from the homepage and add/edit your email address(es), cell phone numbers, and train numbers. Including your primary login email, you can have alerts sent to a total of three email addresses and text messages sent to up to two cell phone numbers. Remember that in order to send you alerts, you must specify which train numbers you ride and which stations you board at. A complete profile is the only way to deliver you relevant alerts.

Celebrate Success
Thanks to the dilegent LAPassenger members who either called or emailed us the delay alerts, we’ve successfully sent many delay and cancellation alerts. A fatal accident involving Amtrak, followed by a ruptured gas main reaked havoc for OC passengers. Thanks to an early tip, our members were alerted to a full closure of the tracks that afternoon, allowing many of you to arrange for alternate transportation home. OC and IEOC line membership has grown since.

Our San Bernardino line alerts have improved thanks to a growth in membership on that line. Its the busiest line in the system so we are still looking for more members and we need more participation from San Bernardino line members.

Room for Improvement
Our alert network is not perfect. LAPassenger was not contacted recently on a Friday when the morning IEOC trains were cancelled entirely due to the investigation of a crime. We don’t have many members on those lines YET. I am also looking to improve the alerts on the Antelope Valley line, so I’m asking all AVL members to get the word out about LAPassenger and be sure to phone in or email alerts when delays occur.

Participation is Key
LAPassenger has over 800 members. Almost all of the most heavily used inbound AM trains and outbound PM trains, have an LAPassenger member on board. All it takes is one phone call to our hotline to alert hundreds of passengers of train delays or cancellations. Here is how you can make LAPassenger’s network even more effective:
1) Program 888-545-TRAIN into your cell phone under LAPassenger, so you always have the number if you need it. If you have a mobile email device, program our email address into your contact list under LAPassenger.
2) Invite all your fellow passengers to join. When you meet a first time rider, invite them to join as well. Invite those passengers who board at stations earlier than yours to join, as the sooner the alert is initiated, the earlier it will arrive to your cell phone or PDA.
3) Call us or email us anytime your train is late, stopped, or broken down for more than 15 minutes over schedule.

Community Assistance
In order to keep LAPassenger a free service, we are seeking sponsors. If you operate or know friends who operate a business, website, or service and would like to help support the growing LAPassenger community, please have them email me. Our page generates over 2600 page views each month. We have created a sponsor information package on the website under the Sponsor link on the menu.

If you have a skill that you would like to donate to improve LAPassenger, please contact me as well. I am always interested in any assistance with web-design, promotion, media exposure, graphic design, and PHP/MySQL programming. Any members that are willing to pass out some wallet sized promotional cards to fellow passengers can also contact me, and I will mail some to you.

Thank You
Thank you to everyone who has written with positive feedback about how LAPassenger has saved you time. Just keep calling the hotline or emailing us when a train is delayed or stopped, and we’ll keep our members informed.

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