Baltimore Penn Station

We've had a rash of station renamings in Chicago, and I think it's utterly silly. What was once Northwestern station, named after the C&NW and sending passengers only in a north/west/northwest direction is now Ogilvie. Way to take a very useful name and replace it with something totally obscure. A few years after that, Randolph Street station became Millennium station, named for the new Millennium Park that is above it. Thing is, we're in 2013. This millennium is old freakin news, it represents that past rather than the future.

What's next, replacing the name "LaSalle Street Station" with a sound that has no alpha-numeric representation?

The real horror would be if they caught the disease that now besets sports venues and sold "naming rights" to the highest bidder and Baltimore wound up with Doritos Corn Chip Station or something like that, until it changed in a couple years to something else when the contract ran out, and then something else a few years after that. There is already a distressing precedent in Philadelphia where SEPTA let AT&T rename the Pattison Avenue terminal of the Broad Street subway line.

Before too many start to discount Mr. Nelligan's immediate thought, let us consider that several mass transit agencies are considering naming rights arrangements for their stations. Could Amtrak be far behind?

Naming rights are, quite simply, a revenue stream and no longer limited to the not-for-profit sector. Even radio stations here have now lry naming rights; funny how WGN 720 has the Allstate studio and WBBM 780 has the MB Financial. I doubt if once upon a time, no one envisioned Sears Tower being anything else; well hello Willis Tower. It was also "woe betide..." any sports reporter who referred to the arena at which the Chicago White Sox play as "Comiskey Park' after a naming rights transaction occurred with US Cellular. Now, with US Cellular being acquired by Sprint (which lest we forger, owes its origins to the Southern Pacific) what will happen with those rights?

And not far away from there, the Stock Yards Branch of the Chicago "L" (now gone) used to have stations named "Armour" and "Swift". But I don't think those companies paid for naming rights.

Too bad "Moo & Oink" went out of business!

Could be the "Ravens Nest" or "Poe's Po"????

TomNelligan wrote:The real horror would be if they caught the disease that now besets sports venues and sold "naming rights" to the highest bidder and Baltimore wound up with Doritos Corn Chip Station or something like that, until it changed in a couple years to something else when the contract ran out, and then something else a few years after that. There is already a distressing precedent in Philadelphia where SEPTA let AT&T rename the Pattison Avenue terminal of the Broad Street subway line.

I don't see what is so distressing about getting $5 million bucks. nobody cares about pattison ave either as it's most often referred to as the sports complex (being home to all 4 major teams). If you were going to rename a station, that was the one to pick.
It's no worse than naming stations for politicians who, in the end, contributed none of their own money to the stations either. I don't see how Ogilvie is inherently better than "Chicago Vienna Station" or how Moynihan is better than Citigroup station. In the end, with a few exceptions, I think the right solution is to stick with the historical name and if it is changed, change it to reflect something useful or already in use. If Baltimoreans called it Charles St Station, then that would be the way to go.

Patrick Boylan wrote:I got "We couldn't find the page you're looking for."
What are some of the names they're proposing? Is it anything like the proposal to rename 30th St "Ben Franklin"?

Here's the current link…some web sites have the bad habit of changing URLs. There aren't any suggestions for name changes in the article, but evidently the author is a fix-what-isn't-broken type.

Also, being an editor, he has to fill space in every issue. If he hasn't got anything of substance to say, he has to say something without substance -- but he has to fill the space. But hey, maybe it'll generate some letters to the editor and he can keep the ball in the air for a few more issues.

I'm fine with a name change... but it has to be to another failed business or disgraced local citizen. Baltimore Maryland & Pennsylvania Station, for instance.

Looking forward to Detroit Kilpatrick Station and Philadelphia Braniff Station, but Washington would have to have its dedication name mounted on a Solari board

Spiro Agnew?

The name has already been changed before. It has been Union station and Penn Central Station.

NO ONE called it Penn Central Station.

This is a horrible idea. The name has significant historical meaning and is widely used, especially to differentiate from Camden station. Amtrak refers to it as Penn Station on all of its schedules and website, and what would they call MARC's "Penn" line?

What they can do to improve the station is to tear down that ugly monstrosityin front of it, rather than changing the nearly 100 year old name. Penn Station's facade is my personal favorite (yes I prefer to even GCT and WAS) and that "art" completely ruins it.

It's Baltimore--gotta be Ripken Station, and change the street number to 2131.

Ray Lewis Central?