Last week we announced the MetroGreater finalists and opened voting. Between now and August 26th, when voting closes, we want to tell you more about each finalist idea. Today’s featured finalists: Kojo Nnamdi making train announcements and the local (non-professional) artists’ work in stations.

Photos by Ted Eytan and steve loya on Flickr, respectively.

Kojo on Metro: Recorded rail announcements by local personalities

More than 100 submissions to MetroGreater focused on improving the announcements on Metrorail. The jury chose an idea to have prominent figures from the Washington region, such as WAMU’s Kojo Nnamdi, lend their “voice talent” to create recorded announcements for Metro. Here’s the original submission:

Providing a real human voice is vital to providing a friendly and comfortable transit experience. With our new Metro cars, we’ve gone to automated announcements (which is fine), but lost the real human voice (which leaves the system feeling dull, sterile, and not original); we need to record a great voice that can become known as our region’s transit voice. I think it would be great to feature none other than Kojo Nnamdi!”

Ryan W. submitted this idea and notes that even though this idea may seem “whimsical,” he thinks it would help Metro be able to “deliver the service we as a region need it to.” He also shares that it would be a “huge branding opportunity for the Washington region as whole” whereby tourists and locals alike would come to associate a particular voice with our region.

In Ryan’s opinion, Kojo is a unique candidate to record Metro announcements since he has a “recognizable and distinguished voice” and is also distinctly connected to the DC region. But Ryan also shared that Mayor Muriel Bowser or President Barack and First Lady Michelle Obama would make excellent candidates if they were willing to lend their voices.

What do you think? Would Kojo’s voice announcing stops make your Metro rider better? Vote at MetroGreater.org or share a comment below.

Feature local artists’ work in stations

Another finalist idea focused on featuring art in Metro stations. Here is the original submission:

Invite local non-professional artists to submit works of art to be displayed safely in Metro stations for a period of time, say six months, then have new works displayed. Have a group of artists form a panel to choose the art to be displayed.

Jennifer S. envisions an ongoing program that exhibits local artists’ works on rotation, changing every six months or so. She recommends that a “Metro panel decide on a uniform frame size for submissions” so all works can be easily displayed and rotated. “Of course the size would have to be large enough to be seen from trains as well as up close”, notes Jennifer.

When reviewing this idea, the MetroGreater jury wondered if a small stipend could be offered to each artist who lends their work. Jennifer worried that this would limit the program’s ability to be sustained into the future, noting that “the money would eventually be used up and later artists chosen would not receive the stipend.” Instead, she suggested that the funds remaining after purchasing and installing the frames could be donated to local public schools to support their arts programs.

Tells us what you think about this idea by voting at MetroGreater.org. Or, share your thoughts in the comments section below.

Do you want Metro to implement one of these ideas? Vote today at MetroGreater.org!