Hopping Amtrak's SXSW Express

These days, flying coach on any airline is so awful that it’s practically an ad by default for the train. But Amtrak, America’s long-suffering passenger railroad (which in fact carried over 31 million riders in 2012) has actually been busy with some cool stuff on the marketing front lately. On the heels of a Twitter-inspired writer-in-residency program, Amtrak just announced a special social-media-influencer train, which will let its riders “engage with each other and explore the unique surroundings offered by long distance travel,” Christina Leeds, the railroad’s senior communications officer, told Adweek.