Making the website better

When Trains' new website appeared in October, you loyal and attentive readers out there let us know what you thought. Much of what you wrote to us in emails and called us on the phone about was positive. Before long though, you found problems. So we listened and learned. We took what you told us and started working.

I'm happy to say that as of this morning, the good website people in our building added new computer codes that make the website better. No, really, it's improved. Here's what to look for:

1.) The search function. Trains has tons of pictures, loads of video, and daily news stories since 2006. Now you can find what you're looking for just by typing in a keyword or phrase.

2.) The RSS feed. It's back, but it won't last forever. Our experts say we are among the few websites to support RSS and future software will not support it at all. For now, you can link to it here: http://trn.trains.com/rss/newswire

3.) NewsWire. We heard a lot about how NewsWire was hard to read or follow. Now, you can see all of today's stories at the bottom of a screen, all of yesterday's headlines, then everything else.

4.) Color-change links. This was a problem we couldn't see at first. (No pun intended.) With in-house computer screens, we would click on a link and it would change color to show that we had already visited a certain web page. It turns out that our screens showed the color difference better that it showed for most of you. Black text now turns pale gray when you click on it. We hope it is easier to see.

5.) Previous and Next headlines. This is another NewsWire feature you asked for. That is, when you see a link that takes you to what comes "next" we're now showing you the headline of what will come next so you know.

Is that all? No. There are other changes that were made that you can't see from your side. And there are still updates and improvements that we'll need to work on from time to time, but we'll try and let you know before we do anything big. What will never change is our desire to offer the best website about railroading possible. To that end, we hope you like what you see. Let us know what you think.