Gold Line Station Names?

[Elson]

Remember just a couple weeks after the Gold Line opened in 2003, there was a proposal by the various local governments along the line to change some of the station names? (i.e. Mission would be changed to "City of South Pasadena" (as opposed to merely "South Pasadena") or something dumb like that).

What ever happened to the plan? All of the new Metro Rail maps have the original names. Not that I'm complaining, just wondering. In fact I'm glad the station names have not changed.

[bennyp81]

I remember. Pasadena's city council approved name changes for the stations within its city. So did South Pasadena's. The MTA also approved name changes for the portions within L.A. and East L.A. However, only those approved by the MTA happened. Those suggested by Pasadena and South Pasadena have not been brought to the MTA board's attention yet. I'm guessing that if any station is to be renamed, it must go through the MTA board and be approved by them.

[crzwdjk]

Renaming "Mission" station to "South Pasadena" would probably be an improvement in clarity, especially since it's the only station in South Pasadena, and there isn't even a mission nearby. Calling it "City of South Pasadena" though might be going a bit overboard, in the style of the "Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport" station, which was renamed by an act of congress and is now the longest station name in the country.

[Elson]

crzwdjk said:

Renaming "Mission" station to "South Pasadena" would probably be an improvement in clarity, especially since it's the only station in South Pasadena, and there isn't even a mission nearby.

Of course. But the "San Pedro" Blue Line station is 20 miles north of San Pedro and the "Artesia" Blue Line station is quite a ways west of the actual Artesia.
And the "Anaheim" station is self-explanatory.

On the Green Line, the "Long Beach" station is some 10 miles north of the city of Long Beach and there's no ships to be found anywhere near the "Harbor" station.

Actually, people who ride or plan to ride the Gold Line refer to the Mission station as the Mission station. It's already in the commuter's vernacular.

If you look at a map of the Metro Rail system, you can tell which stations were named by the RTD/LACTC and the current MTA. The current MTA *loves* the composite station names ("Wilshire/Western," "7th St/Metro Center/Julian Dixon") while the simpler-named stations were dubbed during the planning stages by the RTD and LACTC.

The Gold Line's stations were planned by the old LACTC (it just took a loooong time to get done). Hence there's stations like "Chinatown" and "Southwest Museum."

There are composite-named stations on the Gold Line - "Lincoln Heights/CypressPark" and "Heritage Square/Arroyo." Lo and behold, they were re-named by the MTA board just months before the Gold Line opened.
The stations were originally named Avenue 26 and French Avenue, respectively (and some of the station signage/pylons referred to the old name when the line opened).

I very much prefer the single-named stations, unless it's located at a well-known intersection that justifies both names ("Hollywood/Vine" is more recognized than "Vermont/Beverly").

[bobdavis]

Since Gold Line/Sierra Madre Villa is my nearest Metro Rail station, I don't have a problem with that name; I know exactly where the station is. However, I've heard of people thinking that the tracks go all the way to downtown Sierra Madre (where a Pacific Electric line terminated in the ancient times). If I were in charge of names, it would be "East Pasadena", which is what this area used to be called.

[James Fujita]

coming from the South Bay, I have to admit that I was also a bit confused by "Sierra Madre Villa" when the Gold Line first opened. not because I thought it was in the city of Sierra Madre but because I couldn't find it on the map!

(maybe people also think of "the Treasure of Sierra Madre" when they hear that the GOLD line goes there?)

I also find it odd that the Green Line supposedly goes to "Redondo Beach" (okay, so maybe technically it does, but come on, Marine is a long way from the pier) and I was relieved to hear that the Little Tokyo station would indeed be called "Little Tokyo"

[whitmanlam]

The names totally don't fit the station site or the area.

The "Sierra Madre Villa" station conjures up images of a historic village, like El Pueblo in Olvera Street, or the San Gabriel Mission. With brick houses, red tile roofs, water fountains, and so much rich Spanish history.

But instead all you find at Sierra Madre Villa is a Parking Structure and a new Condo development.

In fact none of the stations along the Goldline go to specific points of interest. Except for Chinatown and Highland park where businesses depend on the flow of pedestrians.

It is a shame that our Goldline is mostly used as a park-and-ride, instead of serving the communities, and providing a chance to visit the not so well known sites of history and culture.

These name changes are misleading, the Fillmore Station should be called Huntington Hospital.
Memorial Park should be called Old Town Pasadena station.

People don't have a clue of what is really around the stations.

[LAofAnaheim]

How about Anaheim station off the Blue Line? Do people think that they actually reach Anaheim when they arrive at that station? I'd love to see a tourist mistake that one. "hey, where's disneyland?"

[antonio]

Or making the mistake of thinking that the Blue Line San Pedro station is anywhere near San Pedro. If i Had my choice you'd see more community names or logical geographic names for the stations like they are doing on the Eastside extension. Some changes I'd make on the current Gold Line (mainly echoing what Whitman said): SMV should be East Pasadena or Hastings Ranch, Memorial Park should be Old Town Pasadena, Fillmore should be Huntington Hospital or South Arroyo Parkway (or both with a slash), Herritage Square/Arroyo should be changed because its not realistically close enough to Heritage Square for anybody to visit. (This, along with Southwest Museum, is a poorly located station and it kinda sits between two neighborhoods but it really is more in Cypress Park than the Cypress Park station so lets call it North Cypress Park). The current Cypress Park station should be switched back to Ave. 26 or South Cypress Park. That was an appropriate station named for a street (It's not close enough to Lincoln Heights either). Thats enough for now. But you get the drift.

[Elson]

I hope that future additions to the Eastside Extension of the Gold Line get extended south to places like City of Commerce, Bell, Huntington Park, etc. and not east, because there will be an inevitable duplication (and hence confusion) of station names running into some of the the same major streets as the proposed Foothill Extension.

[antonio]

The Foothill Extension stations will appropriately be named after the cities they pass through however as there is only one station per city (except for Azusa but "Downtown Azusa" and "Citrus College" won't get confused with any alingment south of that). On should never base a route extension based on duplication of station names. That can be easily solved by naming stations the right way before the line opens and not only naming them after the closest arterial (or with the MTA pointless sidestreets like Fillmore or the station formerly known as French. I used to live a 1/4 mile from that station and had never heard of French Ave. in my life).

[Elson]

It's just that the Gold line will look like a weird "C" shape, that both begins and ends in the SGV. It makes more sense to go to a different area altogether.

[antonio]

That will change with the Downtown Connector. THe C is only temporary and the point is not to ride it end to end. How would NYC be if people rode their numerous C shaped lines or U shaped or anything like that end to end?

[James Fujita]

Washington's Red Line is U-shaped, as is Tokyo's Marunouchi Line. Nobody in their right mind would use the Marunouchi Line to travel from Shinjuku to Ikebukuro.

I sure there are plenty of other examples.

Anyways, that is beside the point. L.A. need to have better subway and light rail station names, or else as the system grows larger it is just going to get more and more confusing, especially as L.A. does have several streets that are miles and miles long.

The best solution, IMHO, is if an area has a specific and easily recognized identity, use that. So, "Chinatown" or "Little Tokyo." Or if there are multiple stations in an area, use the cross streets. "Hollywood/Vine" or "Hollywood/Western". In many cases, there is only going to be one station in a city, such as the Gold Line SGV extension.

If I had my way, I'd change the names of the Blue Line stations in Long Beach. Something like "Long Beach/Anaheim" or "Long Beach/PCH" Notice that that would not only describe the cross streets, but it would put the name of the area first, just like "Hollywood/Vine"

[antonio]

Excellent point. Someone could take the Blue Line to the PCH station thinking they were going to Pacific Palisades (unlikely but definitely possible). That's a good point. Thats where the MTA's slash works well, cross streets not mutliple place names. I hadn't realized that putting the area name first if its in the street name helps associate a line with an area.

[Elson]

jfujita said:

Washington's Red Line is U-shaped, as is Tokyo's Marunouchi Line. Nobody in their right mind would use the Marunouchi Line to travel from Shinjuku to Ikebukuro.

I sure there are plenty of other examples.

Anyways, that is beside the point. L.A. need to have better subway and light rail station names, or else as the system grows larger it is just going to get more and more confusing, especially as L.A. does have several streets that are miles and miles long.

The best solution, IMHO, is if an area has a specific and easily recognized identity, use that. So, "Chinatown" or "Little Tokyo." Or if there are multiple stations in an area, use the cross streets. "Hollywood/Vine" or "Hollywood/Western". In many cases, there is only going to be one station in a city, such as the Gold Line SGV extension.

If I had my way, I'd change the names of the Blue Line stations in Long Beach. Something like "Long Beach/Anaheim" or "Long Beach/PCH" Notice that that would not only describe the cross streets, but it would put the name of the area first, just like "Hollywood/Vine"

I think the slashes are superfluous, unless they denote a well-known intersection (i.e. Hollywood and Vine being arguably the most famous intersection in the entire world). "Anaheim" can just be "Anaheim Street" and "San Pedro" can just be "San Pedro St."

The previous MTA administration went crazy with the slashes. They're the ones who came up with this for a station name:



(it has since been updated to "Vermont/Santa Monica"_

or "7th St/Metro Center/Julian Dixon" et al...

[antonio]

I agree that they went way overboard with the slashes but one slash is not harmful and if the MTA continues to have their way and the rest of the system is denoted by slashes then the confusing blue line stations should be also be slashed (but not excessively, just the intersection or if a community name is more appropriate then no slash)

[wad]

You think slashes are ridiculous here? Washington D.C. has ludicrously long station names, adding every landmark around a station to its name. Sometimes, the landmarks aren't even close. The GMU station is for George Mason University, about 3 miles away from the Metro!

[antonio]

good point, somone noted on this thread earlier that "Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport" is the longest station name in the USA. GMU is far from the Orange Line but walking from the "College Park-University of Maryland" station to the actual campus of the University of Maryland is no picnic either. It took me like 15 minutes. (I realize there is a campus shuttle but I was exploring DC on my own and didn't know about it)

[James Fujita]

in the case of "Vermont/Santa Monica/L.A. City College," I do agree that there can be too many slashes.

just plain "L.A. City College" would have been sufficient (especially since it's not a long trek to the actual college) or "Vermont/Santa Monica" but just "Santa Monica" would have been confusing and "Vermont" even more so.

[Elson]

jfujita said:

in the case of "Vermont/Santa Monica/L.A. City College," I do agree that there can be too many slashes.

just plain "L.A. City College" would have been sufficient (especially since it's not a long trek to the actual college) or "Vermont/Santa Monica" but just "Santa Monica" would have been confusing and "Vermont" even more so.

I'm sure when a single street has more than one Metro station on its entire length, that would warrant a slash. Vermont Avenue has five Metro stations on three lines: Red, Purple and Green. The Exposition line would add a sixth station.

[erict]

Since Vermont has so many rail stations, a future (the year 2020) subway or rail connecting them all would only make sense. Right now there is the 12 mph slow-as-molasses metro rapid ok, kind of off subject, I admit it.

[losangeles2319]

Oh Dude, erict, i know
A Vermont corridor subway would be TOTALLY A-W-E-S-O-M-E!!!!!
its on the long range plan

[crzwdjk]

If you look at the Washington Metro map, I think you'll find that the longest station name is not in fact "Washington Ronald Reagan National Airport" but rather "U Street/African American Civil War Memorial/Cardozo", which is an insanity of slashes and minor local landmarks that LA has not yet managed to reach.

[LAofAnaheim]

Mar 28, 2009 16:03:42 GMT -8 crzwdjk said:

If you look at the Washington Metro map, I think you'll find that the longest station name is not in fact "Washington Ronald Reagan National Airport" but rather "U Street/African American Civil War Memorial/Cardozo", which is an insanity of slashes and minor local landmarks that LA has not yet managed to reach.

Hmm..the offical name of 7th street station is: "7th street / Julian Dixon / Metro Center". So, that ties the Washington DC station name. Of course, our unofficial name is moreso 7th street / Metro Center, as I'm sure the Washingtonians do not fully use all 3 names for that station either.

[darrell]

Mar 29, 2009 0:56:33 GMT -8 LAofAnaheim said:

Of course, our unofficial name is moreso 7th street / Metro Center

Which seems to get mis-quoted too often as "Seventh and Metro".

[bluelineshawn]

That's not a misquote. That's just a shortening of the name. Just like "Metro" is a shortened version of Metropolita(i)n. It was the train operators that started introduced "7th and Metro" to the public IINM. I dislike the "Metro Center" being sounded out because it sounds like a ripoff of DC, which it is.

[spokker]

I know what the correct name of "7th and Metro" is, but I continue to use the shorthand version.

[metrocenter]

I actually prefer the simple name "Metro Center". I'd like the neighborhood surrounding the station to adopt that as its name. But I guess that's a lot to ask.

[transitfan]

Mar 29, 2009 8:02:14 GMT -8 bluelineshawn said:

That's not a misquote. That's just a shortening of the name. Just like "Metro" is a shortened version of Metropolita(i)n. It was the train operators that started introduced "7th and Metro" to the public IINM. I dislike the "Metro Center" being sounded out because it sounds like a ripoff of DC, which it is.

In the early days of the Blue Line, there was this one operator who announced the full "7th St/Metro Center" name. He also would announce the full street designation of most of the stations "Next station...Artesia Blvd" I thought it was kinda cool. Most of the others would just say "7th & Metro", however.