Metrolink Partnership to Assist in Vaccination Efforts

Target Audience: - Current and lapsed riders due to the pandemic - Former Metrolink riders - Vaccine-eligible riders who board their Metrolink train from LAUS - Antelope Valley and San Bernardino Line riders - Our own employees and contractors at Metrolink, key stakeholders (Board Members, member agencies, etc.), state and local elected officials, and other transportation agencies across Southern California.

Strategy Objective:Our objective was to provide a safe and convenient way for the communities we serve—particularly the most vulnerable populations –to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. Our strategy to achieve this was to demonstrate our commitment to the health and safety of our riders and local community by making it convenient to get vaccinated using Metrolink. We aimed at informing our community with train line-specific email campaigns, engagement through organic social, leveraging our relationship with the healthcare providers administering the vaccines and our corporate partners to reach their employees.

Situation Challenge: We sought to help facilitate the vaccination process throughout the communities we serve in ways easily accessible to our riders. We offered a direct connection to LA County's COVID-19 vaccination "walk-up" location at Cal State LA when it opened on February 15, 2021. We provided a promotional Metrolink ticket to those making appointments at a vaccine center within 5 miles of a Metrolink station. We worked with the City of Baldwin Park to provide 150 tickets to directly access the Cal State LA vaccination site using Metrolink. As eligibility widened for the vaccine, Metrolink reached out to the LA County and San Bernardino County Public Health departments to create pop-up vaccination clinics for riders and the local community to easily obtain a vaccination at select Metrolink stations.

Results Impact: In April 2021, COVID vaccination sites launched at Metrolink stations in Palmdale and Lancaster. Customer Relations secured promotional codes and issued them to people getting vaccinated at the station sites. In the following months, redemption cards for promotional codes continued to be issued at Palmdale and Lancaster, and extended to vaccination sites at L.A. Union Station, and several stations along the San Bernardino Line. The earned media campaign resulted in 84 mentions including television, radio and print publications, reaching an audience of 25,095,732 with an estimated ad value of $2,566,387.

Why Submit: We respect and value our customers, putting them at the heart of all we do, and work hard to attract and retain new customers by understanding their needs and finding new and innovative ways to bring them on board. With that said, we wanted to be a part of the solution in eradicating the COVID-19 virus, and to do so we knew we needed to be a conduit to offer vaccines—offering promo codes for free train rides to vaccine sites and collaborating with the local cities in partnership with Public Health to promote pop-up vaccine sites at some of the Metrolink stations. With this campaign, we made it clear to our community and riders that we care about their welfare and safety and wanted to be a part of the solution to combat the uncertainty and dangers the COVID-19 pandemic presented.