F-Line to Dudley
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Tufts was a necessary change because the hospital is no longer called "New England Medical Center". But that's the pitfall of naming rights...these entities change their names faster than ever. Caveat emptor if you're trying to name a landmark after them. This is one example where the T got burned. Granted it was an all-new station for the Orange Line relocation, but this is why you don't mess with the legacy ones with changes you cannot predict will last at the multi-generational level.
Look at the Garden...Shawmut Center, then FleetCenter before it even opened, then that whole confusing interim period where nobody knew what the hell it was going to become. Now at least the "Garden" tag pins it with permanence regardless of whether the corporate sponsor changes once every 10 years. I'm sure that was privately arranged under pressure that whoever took over the name post-FleetCenter had to use "Garden" to restore its landmark status.
Also, re: the subscripted names...hardly any commuters in this town pay any attention to the subscripts. They aren't on T maps, just the station signage. As signage goes they are useful to have as secondary geographic references. I'm completely OK with the subscripts evolving over time if there's good reason to and they use it well. That's added detail for people not familiar with the area, not a change in identity.
As for the others. . .
-- Kendall/MIT was a reversion of a baaaaad mistake. They originally renamed Kendall "Cambridge Center" in the mid-80's when the Red Line was extended and subscripted "Kendall" (expunging it entirely from the main name) thinking the development around there was going to be the new neighborhood identity. It didn't work, people complained loudly, and the signage reverted right back to Kendall within a few years. The "Cambridge Center" subscript on the signage and the subscript getting announced on the ASA is an anachronism they probably should do away with and shorten the subscript to "MIT". I doubt the slash is going to survive forever. Brevity's important, and the MIT campus is getting so spread out they don't have a singular identification with Kendall anymore. They are probably getting their own named stop or two whenever the Urban Ring Phase I or II comes to town, so the suffix will have to get dropped just to keep the names on the spider map clearly delineated.
-- Charles/MGH was an appendage tacked on same time as the disastrous Kendall name change. I'm sure there was some political horse-trading behind that one, but the station was always named "Charles" and always pinned directly to Charles Circle so it's not a landmark change. Mass General is also not Tufts...it's such a longstanding landmark in that location that no corporate takeover is ever going to change its name. It predates the station by a good 50 years. In this case it's a vital public service to suffix it with the hospital. That merits more than just a subscript. I never suggested being totally dogmatic about this...there are viable exceptions. Just make sure the name isn't going to burn 'em in 20 years. N.E. Med. Ctr. < MGH on the century-level permanence front. That has to be taken into consideration.
-- Science Park. As noted, "West End" is the subscript nobody uses. Both of them are kind of unsatisfying names as a geographical marker, but it's been Science Park since Day 1 so not worth messing with.
-- Malden/Malden Ctr. Is that even a name change? I know it was called Malden on the commuter rail before the Orange Line opened, but it is in actual-factual Malden Ctr. People always went there because it's the center of Malden. And Oak Grove (which never existed as a RR station) is in town of Malden so a geographical qualifier was necessary.
-- Auditorium/Hynes/ICA. Ooh, boy...bunch of bad decisions compounding each other. Geographically it's "Auditorium" like the original name and they shouldn't have messed with it. Hynes Auditorium is just the latest iteration of the Auditorium. It didn't merit a name change at all, but politics got involved. Now, if the convention center itself gets a corporate sponsor in some later decade that boots John Hynes to second fiddle in the facility name...they're gonna have a problem. That's a new enough name that 100-year permanence isn't an assumption you can make when changing a 100-year-old station. The ICA suffix was just idiotic. Transparent attempt to boost business when it was in its lousy former location. That could've been subscripted, but they chose to slash it instead. And everyone ignored the slash. It's fine right now, but this stop's naming foibles over the last 25 years are a definite cautionary tale.
-- Museum. I think it's important to note that the default-detail spider map prior to about 1984-85 did not list B/C/E surface stops except for very major stations (see the 1979 map with Northeastern, Brigham, Heath, and Arborway only). For the first 2 decades of the T's existence they were still halfway in the old MTA-era convention of treating surface stops as a second tier only slightly above bus stops in importance. MFA's name was changed well before the branch stops got reclassified to parity with the subway stops. "Museum" only appeared on extra-detail maps like the printed ones or those full-neighborhood maps at stations. And I think you can call that a borderline name change as well. "Museum" = "MFA" abbreviated. MFA is a century-level landmark at that location that pre-dates all streetcar lines on Huntington. "Ruggles" suffix never took...Ruggles St. is hardly the first thing anyone thinks of when getting off at that stop, so it did not stick with riders and got dropped for clarity.
-- JFK/UMass (changed from Columbia, '88). Ugh. Okay, I can see UMass being a worthy part of the name meriting a slashed suffix 25 years ago. That campus has grown to clear landmark status, all in pretty recent times. But JFK pre-empting it? That was a dead political giveaway at a time when they wanted to stimulate tourism at the Library when it was only 6 years old. That decision has not held up well over time, but at least the Library isn't going anywhere. And dropping Columbia off the station name and onto the subscript was a huge mistake. That is the neighborhood thoroughfare out of that station, and where 4 heavily-traveled bus routes fan out from the station. People need to know that, because it's how you get around the neighborhood. Station should've been suffixed Columbia/UMass with JFK relegated to the subscript. Too late to undo that after 25 years, but they botched this one. Kendall --> Cambridge Ctr., N.E. Med Ctr., and the Auditorium --> Hynes/ICA mess all happened within 3 years of each other, BTW...do the T was in a real accident-prone state of mind with the signage eraser circa 1987-90. Use that as a cautionary tale about encoraging this habit...you live with the current political leaders' choices for a lifetime whether those leaders make competent or compromised choices.
The only ones I could see use in renaming:
-- Yawkey. Because that's not exactly a geographical marker. It was a dead giveaway to the Yawkey Trust, just like Yawkey Way was. Who knows if subsequent Red Sox ownerships are going to be all that enamored with associating with the ol' racist to keep that one so prominent around the ballpark. I would say this is suspect for lasting at the century-level. Then again, in '88 when it opened nobody anticipated that cheapo slab of asphalt that was only open for Sox games would ever have staying power so it's not a particularly bothersome one.
-- Route 128. As much as the state would like to expunge that highway number from history, it is a landmark nobody will let go. But this needs to be a suffixed stop, Westwood/128, because there are LOTS of sites that could be suffixed 128, just like Littleton and Forge Park are officially suffixed with 495. The commuter rail should probably adopt that naming convention of "[Location]/[Highway #]" more often. And they're asking for trouble if it gets "Westwood Landing" named after that never-will-be-all-it's-cracked-up-to-be vaporware development. Much like Dedham Corporate Ctr. was a wishful-thinking TOD bust.
-- Dedham Corporate Ctr. I honestly can't think of anything better than this because the surrounding TOD is decent enough to not need a major reboot but blah enough that it's not really clicking. Bringing back the old station name "Rustcraft" (after Rustcraft Rd.) probably doesn't work either because the exit off 128 to reach is is East St. I have a feeling the wishy-washiness of how this site is performing is going to make it a perpetual naming nomad.
-- New Balance/Brighton*. *Hey...perfectly OK to bend the rules here on corporate sponsorship because they're paying their way in a real-deal public-private partnership to build this station. That is totally reasonable for a naming rights deal. But let's not kid ourselves: "New Balance" the company is not going to be around for the rest of the century. They could easily get a corporate takeover in 10 years with that whole development changing names again and again. This is an acceptable exception, but let's not kid ourselves about the inherent risks of using business names for landmarks when that business isn't a permanent landmark (e.g. MGH, or the Pru...which is always going to be the Pru whether Prudential is a tenant or extant company just like the Chrysler Building in NYC will always be the Chrysler Building). Choose wisely and make damn sure it counts (like major construction $$$) when considering exceptions to the rule.
That's about it. Unless some surface Green Line stops get realigned over time to different street corners I can't really think of anything else that needs a change. Including Fenway (DO NOT WANT on "Landmark Ctr." as a main name or suffix...subscript only), which ID's the neighborhood. Most of them have been around so long under their current names it's not worth the confusion. Not even ones like Blandford where the namesake street has been absorbed by the BU borg. BU does not need an excuse to rewrite the T map (and its three named stops have had those names ever since the Charles River Campus opened 8+ decades ago).
Look at the Garden...Shawmut Center, then FleetCenter before it even opened, then that whole confusing interim period where nobody knew what the hell it was going to become. Now at least the "Garden" tag pins it with permanence regardless of whether the corporate sponsor changes once every 10 years. I'm sure that was privately arranged under pressure that whoever took over the name post-FleetCenter had to use "Garden" to restore its landmark status.
Also, re: the subscripted names...hardly any commuters in this town pay any attention to the subscripts. They aren't on T maps, just the station signage. As signage goes they are useful to have as secondary geographic references. I'm completely OK with the subscripts evolving over time if there's good reason to and they use it well. That's added detail for people not familiar with the area, not a change in identity.
As for the others. . .
-- Kendall/MIT was a reversion of a baaaaad mistake. They originally renamed Kendall "Cambridge Center" in the mid-80's when the Red Line was extended and subscripted "Kendall" (expunging it entirely from the main name) thinking the development around there was going to be the new neighborhood identity. It didn't work, people complained loudly, and the signage reverted right back to Kendall within a few years. The "Cambridge Center" subscript on the signage and the subscript getting announced on the ASA is an anachronism they probably should do away with and shorten the subscript to "MIT". I doubt the slash is going to survive forever. Brevity's important, and the MIT campus is getting so spread out they don't have a singular identification with Kendall anymore. They are probably getting their own named stop or two whenever the Urban Ring Phase I or II comes to town, so the suffix will have to get dropped just to keep the names on the spider map clearly delineated.
-- Charles/MGH was an appendage tacked on same time as the disastrous Kendall name change. I'm sure there was some political horse-trading behind that one, but the station was always named "Charles" and always pinned directly to Charles Circle so it's not a landmark change. Mass General is also not Tufts...it's such a longstanding landmark in that location that no corporate takeover is ever going to change its name. It predates the station by a good 50 years. In this case it's a vital public service to suffix it with the hospital. That merits more than just a subscript. I never suggested being totally dogmatic about this...there are viable exceptions. Just make sure the name isn't going to burn 'em in 20 years. N.E. Med. Ctr. < MGH on the century-level permanence front. That has to be taken into consideration.
-- Science Park. As noted, "West End" is the subscript nobody uses. Both of them are kind of unsatisfying names as a geographical marker, but it's been Science Park since Day 1 so not worth messing with.
-- Malden/Malden Ctr. Is that even a name change? I know it was called Malden on the commuter rail before the Orange Line opened, but it is in actual-factual Malden Ctr. People always went there because it's the center of Malden. And Oak Grove (which never existed as a RR station) is in town of Malden so a geographical qualifier was necessary.
-- Auditorium/Hynes/ICA. Ooh, boy...bunch of bad decisions compounding each other. Geographically it's "Auditorium" like the original name and they shouldn't have messed with it. Hynes Auditorium is just the latest iteration of the Auditorium. It didn't merit a name change at all, but politics got involved. Now, if the convention center itself gets a corporate sponsor in some later decade that boots John Hynes to second fiddle in the facility name...they're gonna have a problem. That's a new enough name that 100-year permanence isn't an assumption you can make when changing a 100-year-old station. The ICA suffix was just idiotic. Transparent attempt to boost business when it was in its lousy former location. That could've been subscripted, but they chose to slash it instead. And everyone ignored the slash. It's fine right now, but this stop's naming foibles over the last 25 years are a definite cautionary tale.
-- Museum. I think it's important to note that the default-detail spider map prior to about 1984-85 did not list B/C/E surface stops except for very major stations (see the 1979 map with Northeastern, Brigham, Heath, and Arborway only). For the first 2 decades of the T's existence they were still halfway in the old MTA-era convention of treating surface stops as a second tier only slightly above bus stops in importance. MFA's name was changed well before the branch stops got reclassified to parity with the subway stops. "Museum" only appeared on extra-detail maps like the printed ones or those full-neighborhood maps at stations. And I think you can call that a borderline name change as well. "Museum" = "MFA" abbreviated. MFA is a century-level landmark at that location that pre-dates all streetcar lines on Huntington. "Ruggles" suffix never took...Ruggles St. is hardly the first thing anyone thinks of when getting off at that stop, so it did not stick with riders and got dropped for clarity.
-- JFK/UMass (changed from Columbia, '88). Ugh. Okay, I can see UMass being a worthy part of the name meriting a slashed suffix 25 years ago. That campus has grown to clear landmark status, all in pretty recent times. But JFK pre-empting it? That was a dead political giveaway at a time when they wanted to stimulate tourism at the Library when it was only 6 years old. That decision has not held up well over time, but at least the Library isn't going anywhere. And dropping Columbia off the station name and onto the subscript was a huge mistake. That is the neighborhood thoroughfare out of that station, and where 4 heavily-traveled bus routes fan out from the station. People need to know that, because it's how you get around the neighborhood. Station should've been suffixed Columbia/UMass with JFK relegated to the subscript. Too late to undo that after 25 years, but they botched this one. Kendall --> Cambridge Ctr., N.E. Med Ctr., and the Auditorium --> Hynes/ICA mess all happened within 3 years of each other, BTW...do the T was in a real accident-prone state of mind with the signage eraser circa 1987-90. Use that as a cautionary tale about encoraging this habit...you live with the current political leaders' choices for a lifetime whether those leaders make competent or compromised choices.
The only ones I could see use in renaming:
-- Yawkey. Because that's not exactly a geographical marker. It was a dead giveaway to the Yawkey Trust, just like Yawkey Way was. Who knows if subsequent Red Sox ownerships are going to be all that enamored with associating with the ol' racist to keep that one so prominent around the ballpark. I would say this is suspect for lasting at the century-level. Then again, in '88 when it opened nobody anticipated that cheapo slab of asphalt that was only open for Sox games would ever have staying power so it's not a particularly bothersome one.
-- Route 128. As much as the state would like to expunge that highway number from history, it is a landmark nobody will let go. But this needs to be a suffixed stop, Westwood/128, because there are LOTS of sites that could be suffixed 128, just like Littleton and Forge Park are officially suffixed with 495. The commuter rail should probably adopt that naming convention of "[Location]/[Highway #]" more often. And they're asking for trouble if it gets "Westwood Landing" named after that never-will-be-all-it's-cracked-up-to-be vaporware development. Much like Dedham Corporate Ctr. was a wishful-thinking TOD bust.
-- Dedham Corporate Ctr. I honestly can't think of anything better than this because the surrounding TOD is decent enough to not need a major reboot but blah enough that it's not really clicking. Bringing back the old station name "Rustcraft" (after Rustcraft Rd.) probably doesn't work either because the exit off 128 to reach is is East St. I have a feeling the wishy-washiness of how this site is performing is going to make it a perpetual naming nomad.
-- New Balance/Brighton*. *Hey...perfectly OK to bend the rules here on corporate sponsorship because they're paying their way in a real-deal public-private partnership to build this station. That is totally reasonable for a naming rights deal. But let's not kid ourselves: "New Balance" the company is not going to be around for the rest of the century. They could easily get a corporate takeover in 10 years with that whole development changing names again and again. This is an acceptable exception, but let's not kid ourselves about the inherent risks of using business names for landmarks when that business isn't a permanent landmark (e.g. MGH, or the Pru...which is always going to be the Pru whether Prudential is a tenant or extant company just like the Chrysler Building in NYC will always be the Chrysler Building). Choose wisely and make damn sure it counts (like major construction $$$) when considering exceptions to the rule.
That's about it. Unless some surface Green Line stops get realigned over time to different street corners I can't really think of anything else that needs a change. Including Fenway (DO NOT WANT on "Landmark Ctr." as a main name or suffix...subscript only), which ID's the neighborhood. Most of them have been around so long under their current names it's not worth the confusion. Not even ones like Blandford where the namesake street has been absorbed by the BU borg. BU does not need an excuse to rewrite the T map (and its three named stops have had those names ever since the Charles River Campus opened 8+ decades ago).
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