After three weeks of working on the RIDE magazine editorial calendar, I am finally finished. It was pretty tedious, but definitely satisfying to move all of the issues into one place. All article titles, courtesy reminders, and featured staff are listed in the spreadsheet, and each cover image links to the PDF. I assume this will be … Continue reading Finishing Up

About one or two weeks ago, I began working on one of my biggest projects at VRE: organizing past issues of RIDE magazine. RIDE is VRE’s print magazine that provides service and community information, as well as other transportation matters. Although the magazine-style issues are recent (from 2012 to present), VRE also provided riders with … Continue reading Marketing Dept Project

My workstation was moved to the Comm Room about two weeks ago. This room is where VRE maintains communication with train conductors, station managers, and where trains and security camera footage are monitored. Since I’m an Operations & Communications intern, the decision to move my station to this room was to encourage my involvement in the … Continue reading In the Comm Room

One of the biggest ways I could gain experience with talking to passengers was at the front desk, because it was one of the only areas with an available phone. In order to use a phone at the office, your laptop must be docked in a designated station. Recently, the interns received their own phone station, which eliminated … Continue reading Passenger Support

VRE is planning to increase its fares July 2017. Before this happens, they must hold a series of public hearings to give riders the opportunity to voice any comments or concerns that they may have. A few weeks ago, one of my supervisors gave me a list of venues rented by VRE for previous public … Continue reading Public Hearings and Delays

Passengers riding the train are not only responsible for purchasing a ticket, they must validate the ticket prior to boarding. Failure to do this can result in the conductor issuing a court summons and a large fine. The passengers can either request a waiver from VRE headquarters or attend court and pay the fine. Over the … Continue reading Fare Evasion and Waivers

Since there had been issues with verifying schedule times with one of the railway companies that VRE collaborates with, a set date hadn’t been finalized for the schedule update when I drafted the posts. VRE recently received confirmation and established a date, so the messages are now published. In addition to the digital schedules, new train times … Continue reading Finalizing Schedule and Data Entry

VRE distributes annual surveys to their passengers for information regarding their destination, originating city, and usage of other public transportation services. I’m not too sure about the specifics, but I assume this information is gathered to plan for the construction of future stations or to improve service. Because I had a bit of experience with Microsoft Excel, a … Continue reading Survey Statistics

VRE is in the process of updating the train schedules to accurately portray service. The change is very small, with only a minute or two of a difference for most train departures, but will hopefully result in less confusion for passengers. Before this is put into practice, VRE needs to communicate the upcoming changes to the public. I was … Continue reading Schedule Update