CSX Goes On The Offensive | Facing public pressure, rail firm takes to the local air waves with PR campaign
CSX Corp., which owns the nearly 23 miles of rail lines from Worcester to Boston, hasn't had an easy go of it in the public sphere lately.
That's because CSX and the state of Massachusetts are at odds over liability issues. As a result, plans to add more commuter rail traffic along the busy corridor have stalled and CSX is taking most of the blame in the media. As if that weren't enough, the company is also facing similar liability issues in Florida as well as activist shareholders seeking election to its board.
But CSX isn't taking the bad press lying down.
It's recently begun a nationwide PR campaign that includes spots on local radio, including WTAG 580 AM.
CSX officials say the campaign has been in the works for a while, and it is not a response to negative public opinion in Florida and Massachusetts over rail projects, or complaints by unhappy shareholders.
High Frequency
The airing of the spots began last October and gained traction as CSX encountered resistance to its demands that Massachusetts and Florida accept full liability for any accidents on commuter rail lines it buys from CSX, even if the accident was CSX's fault. CSX would continue to use the purchased rail lines for freight should the projects go forward.
âThe point of the (advertising) program was to talk about CSX in general. It wasn't aimed at, âOh we need to come up with something,â said Robert Sullivan, CSX spokesman.
Here in Worcester, listeners to WTAG may have heard ads with someone reading a list of goods that get shipped over the rails by CSX, exhausting the 30 seconds for the spot long before she reaches the end of her list. WTAG officials did not return calls about how long the advertisements have been running.
Lt. Gov. Timothy Murray, one of the biggest champions in the state of increasing commuter rail from Worcester to Boston, said he has heard some of the commercials. âWhat ultimately matters to the public is that we have freight and commuter rail systems that work cooperatively to maximize usage and efficiency,â he said.
CSX's campaign includes television, online and print ads, including large spots in the Wall Street Journal print edition and banners on Yahoo e-mail sites.
In Florida, particularly around Winter Haven, Lakeland and Ocala, the ads have increased quite a bit as opposition mounted to a similar liability proposal that was also tied to a commuter rail project, according to Julie Townsend, executive director of Downtown Lakeland Partnership. She said the number of CSX ads in Florida increased about six months ago.
âCSX stepped up the ads after...public perception took a negative turn,â she said.
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