Staying Alive

Is CSX playing nice or playing games with street-level crossings into Schuylkill River Park?

by Amanda McKenna

More than just a bunch of wood, metal and gravel separating city from serenity, these railroad tracks have been the crux of a debate — between the railroad company that owns the tracks, the city that created the park and the citizens who've fought for years for access to the river — over where citizens can access the park and who's liable for what happens there. That debate took a strange turn this fall when, at the Race and Locust street pedestrian crossings where tracks meet trails, thousands of free items espousing safety around train tracks and suggesting alternate routes into the park were passed out to park users.

On seven occasions between Oct. 7 and Nov. 12, employees of Maryland-based marketing company Exit 10 passed out T-shirts, hats, gift cards for the Walnut Bridge Coffee Shop, water bottles and Frisbees to users of the Schuylkill River Park. On some days the workers were stationed at the Locust and Race crossings for as long as 10 hours passing out the swag. All of the items were emblazoned with the cryptically positive message, "Keep on Living."

So why were Exit 10 employees standing along the river passing out freebies to park and trail users? CSX Transportation, the Florida-based freight railroad company that owns the tracks, commissioned the campaign. It's the same company that has been accused by some of playing dirty and parking trains, some filled with garbage, along the river blocking access to the Schuylkill River Park. It is also the company that asked the city to cut off street-level, or at-grade, access to the park at Race and Locust streets in October 2004 and then on the 26th of that month bringing suit against the city of Philadelphia stating that it was the city's responsibility to have the street-level crossings closed.

GOOD ADVICE IF YOU CAN GET IT: Freight company CSX, which owns the tracks that run next to Schuylkill River Park, was behind a marketing blitz promoting safety at crossings. : Michael T. Regan

CSX has stated it would prefer park users access the park via elevated stairways or ramps at Walnut, Chestnut and Market streets. However, a poll of 150 park users taken that fall and conducted by the citizen group Free Schuylkill River Park coalition found that 64 percent of users entered the park mainly by way of the Locust Street crossing and 21 percent said Race Street was their main entrance. City officials like 5th District Councilman Darrell Clarke — who is currently involved in negotiations with CSX over a more official agreement regarding the crossings — are concerned about closing the street-level entrances not only because of the inconvenience to park users but because emergency vehicles would also be unable to reach the park. Most distressing is the fact that when trains are parked across the street-level park entrances, pedestrians sometimes climb through the train cars to get to the park.

CSX has 1,100 miles of elevated and street-level tracks in Pennsylvania alone and operations that span 21 states through the Midwest, East Coast and Southern United States. In the past Exit 10 has developed creative billboard campaigns for CSX warning of the dangers of trying to beat a train across the tracks.

Exit 10 president David White says CSX approached him about a campaign that would encourage safety at the street-level pedestrian crossings at Locust and Race streets. Robert Sullivan, CSX regional vice president of public affairs, says his company wanted to get people to realize that climbing through and over parked trains is dangerous. With this in mind, White's team developed the simple but clever "Keep on Living" marketing campaign and hired actors to pass out the free merchandise to users of the Schuylkill River Park and River Trail. The actors were chosen carefully; only people who fit the body type and personality of the target market — the trail and park users — were hired. The items given out were also chosen to reflect the tastes of the target demographic.

"We're trying to educate people," White says. "We didn't want [the Keep on Living campaign] to be about CSX."

That is the reason that the company's brand is absent from all of the merchandise according to William Goetz, a CSX government affairs vice president.

"We're not trying to hide anything but we did tell [Exit 10] that we didn't want the CSX identity to be the initial message," says Goetz.

So is safety really at the core of the recent "Keep on Living" initiative or is this just a clever ploy by CSX to dissuade park users from accessing the riverbank at Locust and Race?

Russell Meddin, co-coordinator of the Free Schuylkill River Park Coalition, has been supportive of "Keep on Living" since CSX approached him about their plans to do the campaign. He says it was the first time the railroad company admitted that people were going to cross the tracks at the two sites.

"I thought it was the best thing in the world," Meddin says. "You just cannot stop people from getting into that park."

After some initial skepticism, fellow Free Schuylkill River Park coordinator Sarah Clark Stuart has become a believer. "In the end I was taken with how positive it was," Stuart says. "I've come to the conclusion that it's good for them to do it and I wish they would have started it earlier. For three years there was nothing. There was silence from the railroad company."

Michael McGettigan, co-owner of Trophy Bikes University City and an avid biker who has ridden along the Schuylkill River for 15 years, thinks the message is disingenuous. He feels the campaign is a corporate marketing stunt created to heal the bad publicity CSX received during the debates over the at-grade crossings.

"I think it's corporate spin," McGettigan says. "They're not doing anything to make anyone safer. There's no way to dress up blocking access to the park and the bike path. The tracks down by the Schuylkill River are no longer going through a desolate riverfront. [CSX] has to realize now it's Schuylkill Banks."

According to Joseph Syrnick, president of the Schuylkill River Development Corp-oration, the nonprofit in charge of the developments along the river, "Keep on Living" is an indicator that CSX does realize the changes that are going on along the banks.

"I think [Keep on Living]'s interesting," Syrnick says. "The first thing that jumped into my mind was, 'This is kind of the first time that CSX is [acknowledging] that there are crossings here — legit crossings.' ... Forget how they are advertising it. It was sort of a big step forward for the trail and our relationship with CSX."

"The status of the crossings is still a work in progress," says CSX's Goetz. "It is something that has been unresolved and as we speak it is still something that is being worked out. While all those efforts are taking place there's a safety issue on the crossings right now."

On Nov. 7 CSX followed up the distribution of marketing materials by posting signs bearing the "Keep on Living" message and maps of alternate routes into the park at the Locust and Race street crossings.

As councilman for one of the Art Museum-area districts, Clarke has been involved in the negotiations with CSX since things began heating up more than two years ago. Not only does Clarke think the "Keep on Living" campaign is a positive step for CSX, he considers it to be in line with recent negotiations the city has had with the corporation about the at-grade crossings. Clarke says that they are close to an agreement that should give the citizen activists the safe street-level access at Locust and Race they've been seeking.

"We're clearly reaching an agreement within six months," Clarke says. "I'd be amazed if we don't."

(a_mckenna@citypaper.net)