News Release: Metro Customers Voice Strong Preference for Short, Distinctive Station Names

Metrorail customers gave strong support for the agency’s station naming policy and expressed a preference for shorter, distinctive station names based on clear geographical destinations and landmarks, according to rider research presented to the Metro Board at today’s Customer Service and Operations Committee meeting.

Through a series of focus groups conducted by Metro in June, customers indicated that they agree with the Authority’s longstanding station naming policy, which limits names to a maximum of 13 characters for transfer stations and 19 characters for other stations. Waivers to the policy over time have resulted in station names that exceed the limits. Customers said they like one or two word names, station names that “let you know exactly where you’re going” and names that are “accurate to a location or landmark.” Station names such as Bethesda, Pentagon and Union Station were cited as good examples. “It’s exactly where you want to go,” one customer said.

Riders did not favor longer station names, such as U Street/African-Amer Civil War Memorial/Cardozo and Vienna/Fairfax-GMU, and indicated that they typically refer to those stations by a common name like U Street or Vienna. They also cited as ineffective station names that included places that are not close to the station, such as Woodley Park-Zoo/Adams Morgan. “If I can’t get there easily, don’t put it in the station name,” one customer said. If a location is included in a station name, riders prefer that it be within a couple of blocks, or no more than a five- to ten-minute walk.

Metro also tested proposed names for rail stations along the extension to Dulles airport, currently under construction. Customers liked two of the names—“Tysons I & II” and “Reston Town Center”—but found the other proposed names to be confusing with the repetitive use of Tysons, Reston and Herndon. Customers also mistakenly believed that “Herndon-Dulles East” was the airport stop.

Recommendations

Barbara Richardson, Metro’s Assistant General Manager of Customer Service, Communications and Marketing, outlined a series of recommendations that Metro:
• Adhere to its existing station naming policy using geographical features or centers of activity for names and keep to the current character limits (13 or 19 characters)
• Incorporate a customer input process in the station naming policy prior to the names being submitted to the Board for approval. Amend the existing policy to require that landmarks in station names be within walking distance

In addition, Richardson embraced the suggestion from participants in the Greater Greater Washington map contest, where it was suggested that stations that currently have multi-part names could benefit from a primary/secondary name approach for maps and signs. Metro’s research showed that customers were accepting of a common name listed first in larger or bolder type, followed by the secondary name.

The Board’s Customer Service and Operations Committee gave preliminary approval to the recommendations. The full Board of Directors will vote on July 21.

Changes to Metrorail system map are expected in 2012 with the realignment of the Blue and Yellow lines, with subsequent revisions in December 2013 for the first phase of the Dulles extension late 2016 for the second phase of the Dulles extension.