R.D. Murray is not just any SEPTA regional rail conductor. He is an official SEPTA "Transit All-Star" -- and has his own trading card to prove it.
Last Friday, the public transit agency began distributing packs of six trading cards for free with every purchase from its Center City sales office as part of a $600,000 advertising campaign to boost ridership and enhance its image.
On his card, Murray stands in front of a regional rail car, outfitted in a navy-blue suit jacket and conductor's hat.
"The last time I went to see the Liberty Bell was in third grade," the card reads. "I know it's there. We all know it's there. ... But every time you ask someone when they last saw the Liberty Bell, they all say the same thing, 'A class trip, I think ...'"
Each card features a trolley, train or bus operator ruminating on aspects of Philadelphia culture, from getting cheesesteaks "wit or witout" fried onions to calling pasta sauce "gravy."
Through this campaign, which includes television and print ads, SEPTA spokesman Jim Whitaker said the organization hopes to show that "we're everyday people who run the system. The passengers and us are just part of the Philadelphia family."
Not all SEPTA riders are feeling the family bond, however. Nearly half a million commuters were displaced by transit workers' recent weeklong strike and service shutdown, which ended Nov. 7.
With SEPTA projecting to be $72 million in the red for the fiscal year ending in June 2007, the ad campaign seemed like an irresponsible use of money to Engineering senior Navin Kumar.
"They're spending $600,000 to give people this?" he said. "It's not even famous people or anything."
If the point of the cards is to attract new riders, he said, it does not make sense to distribute them at SEPTA sales offices.
"The only people who are going to get this are the people who are already taking SEPTA to go to work," Kumar said.
As a frequent rider of the regional rail, Kumar said he would have preferred the money to go toward improving operations.
"Advertising is good and all," he said. "But I think it's more important if they give good service."
Peter Javsicas, executive director of Pennsylvanians for Transportation Solutions, said the ads could have more strongly emphasized the benefits of riding SEPTA.
Javsicas added that since SEPTA is banking its financial future on a dedicated source of funding from the state legislature, the ads could have been more pointed and forward-looking.
"They need to show us and everyone what transit could be if it were properly funded and implemented," he said.
However, Whitaker said, the ads do keep SEPTA's financial issues in mind.
"Funding is an important part of where we are at this point," he said. "We're looking to the legislators, too, to try to impress upon them how important we are."
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