Pullen Park Train
There have been many positive news stories about the newly-remodeled Pullen Park and the plaudits are rightfully deserved. The renovations brought new life to the park and attracted huge crowds to what was already a popular park. There is one issue with the park that wasn’t addressed by the renovation. In fact, the renovation has made it a bigger problem than ever.
I’m talking about the line for the train. It’s often way too long, trapping families when they could be enjoying the park.
I’ve been pondering a solution to this and I think I’ve found one. It occurred to me that boarding the train is what it used to be like boarding a Southwest Airlines flight: you buy your ticket and wait in line for eventual “open seating” boarding.
Southwest realized that most of their customers weren’t fond of standing in line for an hour just to get a good seat. Though I was skeptical at the time, their solution was a brilliant one. Southwest would still have its boarding groups, but instead of one long line of each, the airline created “subgroups.” Thus, there’s boarding group A, subgroup 1-5, subgroup 6-10, subgroup 11-15, and so on.
So, now instead of a passenger having to fight for a spot amongst a 60-person boarding group, all she has to do is find her spot amongst the four other people in her subgroup. And because her ticket has her number on it, she knows where she belongs in that subgroup. By splitting the large line up into a number of little lines (and numbering the spots), Southwest removed any need for passengers to have to stand in line to “defend” their place in it. Passengers are free to wait until the plane gets there before they queue up. Brilliant!
Now, let’s apply this to Pullen Park’s train. The ticket booth passes out tickets to the train that are, say, five different colors (we know how many spots are available on the train so we know how many subgroups are needed to fill the train). The queuing spots for each of these subgroups (little lines, remember) are delineated with posts or markers, similar to those at Southwest’s airport gates (only we don’t need three separate boarding groups as one will do). We can also get rid of the numerical order in the lines if we trust that folks might be more willing to sort out the spot in their subgroup with their fellow subgroup members rather than insist on a numerical order. (At the airport people are pretty casual about this – as long as you’re in the right subgroup folks don’t tend to care what your actual number is.)
If park visitors know they’ve got a spot in line for a certain train, they can wander away from the train line without fear of missing their ride. Families can explore the fantastic new playground equipment near the train station at their leisure. And since the train won’t ever pull up to the station without people noticing, people will know exactly when they need to rejoin the line. With a little thought, this process could also be applied to the merry-go-round, too.
While I don’t know if I explained this where it makes sense, readers who have flown with Southwest Airlines will get this intuitively. The result would free people from having to hold their place in line, allowing them to make the most of their day at Pullen Park.
I wonder if it could be done.