New England Medical Center station needs to be renamed

[sery2831]

Isn't this going WAY off topic?

[Arborway]

Isn't this going WAY off topic?

I really don't think so. All of the comments so far have been absolutely relevant to the impact of changing a station name.

[sery2831]

Last I check the thread about the Orange Line station New England Medical Center Might have wandered OFF topic before I said something... Lets bring the discussion back or move on...

[concordgirl]

well, maybe just back to the NEMC station name, and not Kenmore (ahem my bad ) or Arborway!

[danib62]

Taken last week

The best part is that sign was put in after service was cut back to Heath st.

[San Diego Transit]

So what could the station be renamed to?

MEDICAL CENTER?

THEATER DISTRICT?

MEDICAL/THEATER?

OAK ST?

SOUTH COVE?

Just throwing bland stuff out there to get people thinking.

[concordgirl]

Alright, no Theatre District, Boylston is the Theatre District.

[diburning]

It's not that far from Chinatown. How about getting rid of one of the stops?

[mattster]

Uh, what? No.

If they're going to rename it they're going to rename it to whatever the hospital is called. It's the only major thing in the area.

[Pete]

I'm surprised no one here is raising the what comes up every time these matters of institutionally-named stations arises -- at what point is the Authority (and its users and farepayers, by extension) paying for free advertising?

If a dime of MBTA funds has to go into a renaming, it ought to be renamed to something that's in the T's hands only, not subject to the whims of a (wealthy) private organization's marketing department.

[Ron Newman]

You name a station after an institution because lots of people are using the station to reach that institution:

Harvard, Charles/MGH, Kendall/MIT, JFK/UMass (though that's a LONG walk from the station), Airport, Suffolk Downs, Wonderland, Prudential, Hynes, Symphony, Northeastern, Museum of Fine Arts, Aquarium, Boston University (West, Central, East), Boston College, Courthouse, World Trade Center.

Occasionally the institutions move or get torn down, and the T has to adapt. Mechanics Hall was torn down and replaced by the Prudential Center. The War Memorial (later Hynes) Auditorium was torn down and replaced by the Hynes Convention Center. The ICA moved out of the Back Bay.

[Robert Paniagua]

Well, if JFK & UMASS are far away, then I'd urge MBTA oficcials to restore the original name to the station, Columbia

If I were Red Line train attendant, I'd say " This is Columbia, transfer point for Ashmont (or Braintree) Service, bus connections including the JKF Library and UMASS & Commuter Trains, doors opening on your left"

[orange1234]

Why would you even announce bus connections? That announcement is so ambiguous and tells the passengers absolutely nothing.

[Ron Newman]

If the station isn't called JFK/UMass anymore, announcing the bus connection to that school is essential. But I'm happy to keep the station name as it is now. It has stood the test of time.

The one and only station renaming that the T ever reverted: changing "Kendall" to "Cambridge Center/MIT". After a few years they realized how stupid this was and settled for "Kendall/MIT".

Oops, that's not quite correct: they also tried changing "State" to "State/Citizens Bank", then reverted it a year or two later. (Citizens Bank's headquarters isn't even in Boston! It's in Providence.)

[F-line to Dudley via Park]

If the station isn't called JFK/UMass anymore, announcing the bus connection to that school is essential. But I'm happy to keep the station name as it is now. It has stood the test of time.

The one and only station renaming that the T ever reverted: changing "Kendall" to "Cambridge Center/MIT". After a few years they realized how stupid this was and settled for "Kendall/MIT".

Oops, that's not quite correct: they also tried changing "State" to "State/Citizens Bank", then reverted it a year or two later. (Citizens Bank's headquarters isn't even in Boston! It's in Providence.)

That one was an actual case of trying to sell the naming rights to the station, and met with disaster so they pulled the plug. I'm glad that trend never spread...I'd hate to see stations change names every other year the way sports stadiums do nowadays. That would've ushered in an entire "no two system maps ever alike" era given frequency and consistency with which they update signage.