News   Dec 05, 2025
 1K     5 
News   Dec 05, 2025
 3.3K     7 
News   Dec 05, 2025
 623     0 

TTC: Other Items (catch all)

World's busiest system isn't worried with how things are named:
xintiandi.jpg
 
Some people around here seem to be easily confused or think others will be. If you go to New York City (aka NYC) you may see signage for WTC or World Trade Center - many of us may know it as the World Trade Centre but I doubt most will be confused by acronynms or US (that's United States) spelling.
 
It doesn't matter what it stands for, as long as the station name is readable and findable. If I was trying to figure out what station names meant in Tokyo i'd likely still be there.
Hey now the Tokyo comparison is kinda cheating since they also number their stations so you don't even need to know its name or what it means.
 
Wonder how long it will be before we see some station signs get sticker/marker additions to put an "e" in the new station name.
 
Agree to disagree then. Some companies just lean heavily into acronyms because it's easier for everyone involved. Even in an official capacity.

Take a look at most of our big banks: CIBC, BMO, RBC. They very rarely use their long form names. A similar use case is when they sponsor a venue name. It's not Royal Bank of Canada Amphitheatre. it's just RBC Amphitheatre. It's not Bank of Montreal Field, It's BMO Field.
In the examples you named, though, at least everyone is made aware of the fact that they're ampitheatres and fields that are being discussed, though. TMU station is like if the aforementioned places were called RBCA or BMOF.

Again, not everyone knows what TMU is, especially if they're new to the city. Should station names require prerequisite knowledge of the institution they're named for? Isn't the whole point of station names to tell you where you are?
It doesn't matter what it stands for, as long as the station name is readable and findable. If I was trying to figure out what station names meant in Tokyo i'd likely still be there.
I think that depends entirely on whether you view station names as something that should be unique and stand out, or deliver information about where the place actually is. I lean towards the latter, so I think it would be much more helpful to actually spell outright what the place is. As for Tokyo, again, I'm not saying that you need to know what every local name means in Japanese, but don't you think it would be odd if you were travelling to Shinjuku station and the corresponding metro station was called MMJ, for Micron Memory Japan?

I just don't see the defence here. Why isn't York University station called YU? Why isn't Vaughan Metropolitan Centre VMC station? Pioneer Village = PV? Victoria Park = VP? Union Station = US? Bloor Yonge = BY? Royal York = RY?
I was able to find my way to WTC station in new york perfectly fine before i got there and clued in what it stood for.
Where precisely do you see WTC used in place of "World Trade Center"? The subway map, station signs, and destination signs for the E train all spell out the full station name, as do the walls on the station of the current WTC-Cortlandt on the 1 train. The only place I see the acronym in use is on the subway map in labelling the PATH and 1 train station, which is fine because the E station right next door is spelled out in full, and thus eliminates all confusion.

1763494800143.png


And yet Montreal has Berri-UQAM station. LA (!) has Westwood/UCLA station.
Multiple places doing a foolish thing does not mean it is still not a foolish thing.

unique > meaningful
If that is the case, then why not start naming stations for random sci fi/fantasy characters and books? Spock, Narnia, Harry Potter, Darth Vader would all be incredibly unique names.

---

Looking pretty makeshift.

1763494549480.jpeg1763494538396.png

I'm so glad my tuition is being used for this vanity project, instead of something useful, like a price reduction on classes... :rolleyes:
 

Back
Top