All Aboard Transit Campaign Wins Caltrans Award for Excellence

MTC and media consultant Craft & Commerce this year received a Caltrans’ Excellence in Transportation award for the ongoing All Aboard Bay Area Transit campaign that was initiated by the Blue Ribbon Transit Recovery Task Force organized by MTC in May 2020 to help guide the future of the Bay Area’s public transit network in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Working in partnership with the Bay Area’s 27 transit agencies, MTC and Craft & Commerce launched the campaign in the summer of 2021 to encourage Bay Area residents of all ages to move forward together on the region’s buses, trains, ferries and light-rail vehicles. With a roughly $180,000 purchase of advertising on social media, digital and terrestrial radio, display ads in local publications, posters in bus shelters and transit stations, and interior and exterior placards on transit vehicles, the campaign included messaging in English, Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese and Tagalog. MTC and the transit agencies also established a website, AllAboardBayArea.com, as a source for more information, including information about all participating transit agencies.

Caltrans, which honored All Aboard Bay Area Transit for excellence in the public awareness campaigns category, noted in its award summary the campaign’s goals to accelerate the growth in transit ridership and demonstrate a unified message across the region’s transit agencies. National Transit Database figures show Bay Area transit agencies’ overall monthly ridership grew from about 14.2 million in July 2021 to 16.5 million in July 2023.