Kevin Riordan: PATCO polishing its brand - with merchandise

The PATCO High-Speed Line is offering a line of accessories.

The railroad's snazzy red, white, and black logo now appears on T-shirts, tote bags, ties, and several other items for sale at zazzle.com/shoppatco.

Starting Monday, paper tickets for the commuter system - whose utilitarian cars displayed no commercial messages whatsoever until 2008 - will bear a Rutgers-Camden School of Business advertisement.

With station improvements nearing completion, and a fleet of rebuilt cars expected to roll out next year, PATCO wants to polish and leverage its brand.

"Other transit systems around the country are selling items. It's a good marketing tool, and it doesn't cost us anything," PATCO assistant general manager Cheryl Y. Spicer said. "We expect the revenue will be minimal, but any little bit helps."

(Last year, SEPTA took in $197,000 from its transit gift store at 13th and Market in Center City, according to spokesman Andrew Busch.)

Spicer noted that PATCO had no interest in operating a bricks-and-mortar store; Zazzle hosts the virtual PATCO emporium for free. The California company produces the promotional doodads on demand and keeps 90 percent of the price of purchases, which range from $9.95 for a small tote bag to $29.95 for the aforementioned neckwear.

Puzzles, mouse pads, and clocks also are available; the transit agency gets a 10 percent cut of the price of all items. PATCO markets the merchandise in-house.

Selling space on the tickets may prove more lucrative. PATCO will earn $5,000 by selling Rutgers space on a month's worth, or about 200,000, tickets. The 14.2-mile line connects South Jersey and Center City and carries 37,280 riders on an average weekday.

"City Hall station is one short block from the Rutgers-Camden campus, [so] it simply makes sense to remind PATCO commuters of this convenient opportunity to earn their Rutgers degree," spokesman Mike Sepanic said. "The Rutgers School of Business is taking advantage of this chance to reinforce the Rutgers brand."

"I'm all for that," says Rutgers-New Brunswick alumnus J. William Vigrass, who helped build PATCO and retired from the system as assistant general manager in 1988.

The Cherry Hill resident, 82, well remembers how resolutely uncommercial the trains used to be.

"General manager Robert B. Johnston wouldn't hear of it," Vigrass recalls. "He didn't want his cars defaced."

Johnston died in 2001, at 80. Vigrass is diplomatic about the branding effort.

"I can't say that it's bad. Let's say I'm in favor of it," he says. "As long as it's done in good taste."

No worries.

Those trucker hats, conventional T's, and standard key chains are as utilitarian as PATCO's original cars.

And as a longtime rider who remembers when the fleet was less than a decade old - and was saddened when the line began to show its age - I'm heartened by the improvements of recent years.

The online store sounds like something other public agencies might emulate. As long as, say, the Camden County Soil Conservation District or, heaven forbid, the Cinnaminson Sewerage Authority don't start selling souvenirs.