A Subterranean Sales Approach

'Moving' Tunnel Ads Enliven the View on Red Line Trains

Red Line riders might have noticed something unusual if they looked out their train windows yesterday while passing through downtown Washington: Projected on the tunnel walls were mini-motion pictures showing a man being pulled by a team of sled dogs, followed moments later by a red carpet rolling out to a new luxury car.

The tunnel advertisements that Metro debuted yesterday are part of the transit agency's efforts to boost revenue from sources other than passengers. The first two advertisers are the Travel Channel, part of Silver Spring-based Discovery Networks, and Ford Motor Co., which is promoting its new Lincoln Zephyr luxury car.

About 9:15 a.m., Metro officials flipped the switch to turn on the advertising displays, which can be seen in the tunnels between the Metro Center and Gallery Place-Chinatown stations, and between Gallery Place and Judiciary Square on the Red Line traveling toward Glenmont. The advertising displays are a series of lighted, static images that appear to move, like so many flip cards, as the train rolls by.

"Oh! That's cool ," said Alice Siegel, a tourist from Los Angeles, who stepped on a train at Metro Center and saw the advertising. "I've never seen this before." Several other passengers on the rail car -- alerted to look out the window by members of the media -- broke into applause. Siegel's husband, Steven, quipped: "We might need to stay on this all day."

The tunnel ads -- a part of Metro's revenue-producing program that includes ads on ATMs in stations and rail cars and buses wrapped completely in advertisements -- are expected to generate about $100,000 for the fiscal year that ends in June, and $700,000 next year, Metro officials said.

The Travel Channel advertisement will run for a month; the Lincoln Zephyr ad will run for two months. An ad for Lexus is scheduled to begin next month. Metro officials are also considering installing tunnel ads on opposite sides of the tunnel and along other lines by later this summer. Crews worked for the past several weeks -- late at night, single-tracking trains -- putting up the technology that displays the ads.

The technology, developed by Submedia LLC, uses a long, thin light box mounted 600 feet inside each tunnel. Inside the light box are computer-generated images. Tiny slits on the outside of the light boxes turn the images into animated motion pictures, Submedia officials said.

Three other transit systems -- MARTA in Atlanta, the PATH commuter train in New York and New Jersey and CTA in Chicago -- have also used tunnel ads, officials said.

Several regular riders said they did not see the ads, because they don't usually look out the window. Metro officials gave the ads a generally positive review. Asked what he thought of them, Dan Tangherlini, Metro's interim general manager, said: "I'm a little concerned about the car ad, to be honest. It's not my first choice." But he said, "Hey, if they think transit users are going to buy a car to go places Metro doesn't serve, that's fine."

Metro has tried other types of advertising, but bus and train wrap advertising has not been as lucrative as originally predicted. The steep production costs -- $14,000 to wrap a rail car, paid for by the advertiser -- have deterred many clients, officials said.

Metro expects to generate about $33 million in fiscal 2007 through advertising on buses, trains and ATMs. Officials have also talked about installing video monitors in trains and buses that would provide news and traffic information.

Yesterday, Tangherlini said he wants the agency to have a broader, more cohesive strategy in place before moving too quickly on many different projects.

Some of the revenue from advertising will be used to add electronic message boards outside two rail stations -- Shady Grove and Gallery Place are among those being considered -- in a pilot program that officials hope to have in place by September. The boards will display real-time information about train arrivals and service disruptions before people pay to enter the system.

Staff writer John Kelly contributed to this report.