Suburban Station to be renamed Verizon Station?

http://citypaper.net/article.php?Suburb ... tion-20578" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Sources at SEPTA and an affiliated public agency acknowledged that transit officials have been talking about selling the naming rights for Suburban Station to telecommunications giant Verizon for an undisclosed sum of money.

Even though the money would be nice, the name change kind of depresses me when the name has been there for decades. But oh well.

Wonder how much it would cost to buy the naming rights for Fortuna, Eddington, or Crestmont.

Push/Pull Master wrote:http://citypaper.net/article.php?Suburb ... tion-20578

Sources at SEPTA and an affiliated public agency acknowledged that transit officials have been talking about selling the naming rights for Suburban Station to telecommunications giant Verizon for an undisclosed sum of money.

Even though the money would be nice, the name change kind of depresses me when the name has been there for decades. But oh well.

Well, that made me shudder.

I'm certainly not advocating renaming Suburban Station, but if they want to, they should at least pick something that makes sense like 'Philadelphia Central' or something.

That would be a damn shake if they changed it


What i do in this sort of situation when i come across an unfavorable name change, i just forget it happened and keep using the old name. Theres no stopping ppl's greed for more $

But septa does need more $

More interestingly, they're going to have a gigantic Verizon advertisement right next to Comcast HQ.

"Get off at Verizon Station to go to work at or visit Comcast."

Well, on the Broad Street Line, they changed the name of Pattison Ave. Station to AT&T Station a few years ago. Before we know it, there will be a T-Mobile Station, Sprint Station and Virgin Mobile Station...all the original names of Regional Rail/subway stations will be a thing of the past.
On a side note...remember several years ago there was talk about renaming (Amtrak's) 30th Street Station "Ben Franklin Station".

SubwayTim wrote:On a side note...remember several years ago there was talk about renaming (Amtrak's) 30th Street Station "Ben Franklin Station".

Now, that's morphed into "William H. Gray III 30th Street Station".

I'm surprised more naming rights haven't been sold. AT&T is paying SEPTA just $600K/year for Pattison, which is enough for what, 3 SEPTA manager salaries?

Ugh I hope this won't be the case...

Selling naming rights isn't really as lucrative as it sounds. First it costs the agency a fair bit of money to change all the station signage and every map systemwide, so you have to subtract those not insubstantial costs from the revenue. Then considering how little demand there actually is, you're not going to get very much out of it.

Plus a lot of companies don't want their image associated with a transit system, because of things like, say, delays on the BSL due to a disabled train at AT&T. There's fear that people will negatively associate things like that with the company.

One word:

BLECCHHH!!!

So if you take the train from Paoli to watch the Eagles you need to change at Verizon to AT&T?

loufah wrote:I'm surprised more naming rights haven't been sold. AT&T is paying SEPTA just $600K/year for Pattison, which is enough for what, 3 SEPTA manager salaries?

The deal splits the money between the city who owns the system and SEPTA who operates it.

The city portion is enough to pay for about 3 patronage jobs in city hall..

SEPTA owns suburban station.

They should keep the name Suburban Station, as it has been known since the PRR years. The facade of the Suburban Station building still bears "PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD" and "SUBURBAN STATION" and I'm hoping they still keep that if the station's name is changed to Verizon. Whether it be Philadelphia, or any city, they should leave the original names of train stations and other transportation terminals alone, especially if they have a rich history. That's where the old saying "If it ain't broke, don't fix it!" comes in. A little off-topic, but I also hate the way most sports venues (stadiums, arenas, etc.) are named after financial institutions and airlines, instead of being given a more original name.

You know, Penn Central hasn't been around for how many years, and conductors still announce "Penn Center Suburban Station" at the stop.

Plus, I am surprised that there isn't at least a bidding war going on for naming rights between Comcast and Verizon for this. Maybe Verizon would be better off with naming rights to Fern Rock.

Or maybe City Hall Station/15th Street will be renamed for Comcast? It would be nice if Comcast could foot a good chunk of the bill for renovating that station in exchange for 50 year naming rights or something like that. "Station needs remodeling? Yeah, let's see who will pay for it and rename it after them!"