Renaming Dublin's rail lines after people

brianc89

Dart+ West, Dart+ Coastal North, Luas BDX, MetroLink. Omg yawn...

Has there ever been a proposal to name our major transport lines after famous people? No 1916 revolutionaries please!

Oscar Wilde, Mary Robinson, Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell, Liam Neeson, Ernest Walton, Johnathan Swift, McGregor, Saoirse.... the list is endless.

There are so many women in particular that could be honoured, especially given how appalling this state has treated them.

pat_sconce

Oh god no.

No no no.

Duke of Schomberg

" . . . McGregor . . . " - if that's knacker McGregor, then the Luas Red Line would be a candidate to be named after the man.

Ramasun

There must be a good few slow, disorganised and inefficient people to name them after.

Jim_Hodge

Absolutely not. Terrible idea.

Victor

No. There are well established names. Creating confusion is unnecessary and inappropriate.

It is generally not good to name things after living people. You never know what ghosts are behind the scenes.

brianc89

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120943415#Comment_120943415

Well established names? MetroLink... Really?!!! It's not very cultural is it, let alone established.

Yes was thinking same... "being dead" should be a base requirement.

POBox19

Oh yeah, Belfast to Dublin could be the 'Traditional Route'. Belfast to Derry the 'Big Ian's Way'.

Seriously, no.

Jim_Hodge

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120943439#Comment_120943439

And then spend years debating renaming them as societal norms change. Look at all the statues being removed and sites renamed at present.

brianc89

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120943491#Comment_120943491

You mean statues and buildings named after slave owners? Those ones is it?

It's hardly such a controversial idea - our streets, bus and train stations, airports, buildings, sports stadia, all our bridges... all of these pieces of infrastructure are named after people.

Humans like calling inanimate objects after other humans. Dart+ Coastal North just doesn't have a ring to it, if you ask me...

Jim_Hodge

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120943506#Comment_120943506

And outside of Dublin nobody uses designated bus or station names other than a geographical reference. Likewise with bridges. You're entitled to your preference but to me Metro North would mean more, and tell me more, than the John Doe Line. Just like I rather the M1 motorway to the Mary Smith motorway.

brianc89

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120943532#Comment_120943532

It's called MetroLink. Was rebranded there a while back 😆

Jim_Hodge

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120943624#Comment_120943624

It was a example. I'm not near Dublin, so don't follow the plans. Giving it a name after a person would be desperate though. Even MetroLink gives a hint to it's function.

elperello

Lovers of irony might like to see the Luas Green Line named after Todd Andrews.

ArcadiaJunction

The can name the Metro Sinead O'Connor as it's dead.

noelfirl

Jesus Christ, please no. Just no.

Metrolink probably won't even actually be called that in terms of operational branding, it will probably just be Metro Blue/Yellow/whatever colour line designation it gets. DART+ Coastal North is just the name of the infrastructure, hints in some of the material around the DART+ project suggest that if anything there will be simple route designations used like D1 etc.

p_haugh

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120944140#Comment_120944140

As with Luas CrossCity, that name simply went away once it actually went into service as an extension of the green line. It's just a name for the infrastructure element.

brianc89

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120943946#Comment_120943946

Definitely too soon

JohnC.

Has it happened elsewhere? I can only think of the tube lines Victoria and Elizabeth in London off the top of my head. Maybe Jubilee if you want to stretch the definition of naming a line for someone a little. But has it happened in other parts of the world?

whisky_galore

Oh ffs, the current fad of having to name every inanimate object after a person.

magicbastarder

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120943532#Comment_120943532

not just outside of dublin. how many people would refer to dun laoghaire or bray stations by their full name, for example?

Flinty997

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058308171/renaming-dublins-rail-lines-after-people

For the love of mike no....

brianc89

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120945222#Comment_120945222

So I'm gonna be totally honest and admit, I thought all Tube lines had a "name" as such. It was only yesterday after I posted this thread that I googled and realized this wasn't the case.

Victor

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120945347#Comment_120945347

All London Underground ('Tube') lines do have names.

https://content.tfl.gov.uk/standard-tube-map.pdf

London Overground, DLR, London Trams, Thameslink and the Elizabeth line are separate systems and not part of London Underground. Their lines may or may not have public / private names.

gjim

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120943946#Comment_120943946

For a joke to be funny - particularly an edgy one - it has to make some sort of sense. The metrolink project is progressing afaik

Flinty997

In the UK there's a lot of influence of patriotism, monarchy etc. Without being Judgemental, perhaps in a modern context with multi cultural and multi national mix public infrastructure schools be free of any associations. Though I have no issue with recognising and appreciating the past and notable figures in it.

Flinty997

Some sort of project related to freedom of speech, arts, or music, social injustice, like a theater or such might be more appropriate for Sinead O Connor than a train line.

brianc89

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120945522#Comment_120945522

Wow it took 25replies to finally get constructive feedback. I find the general response to this thread to be really interesting.

Are we still so insecure about our British past, that this has struck such a nerve? Does the idea feel too British for people? I don't know?...

We proudly name lots of things after people, bridges for example. Not sure how this is so different.

noelfirl

Or you know, people just think it's not a well developed idea, with little likely benefit, and a strong possibility of a Pandora's box of ridiculousness being opened, if it were pursued. Were you expecting a pat on the head or something?

Jim_Hodge

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120945530#Comment_120945530

It has nothing at all to do with Britishness. You're reading too much into a couple of replies and going way off the mark.

Economics101

This has to be the worst suggestion ever made on Boards.

brianc89

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120945629#Comment_120945629

Yeah maybe I'm off the mark. I couldn't care less if people like "my idea" or not, it's not about that.

But there has been a clear distaste for the idea despite the fact that most our streets, all of bridges, our stadia, many buildings are named after people. Most countries in the world name their airports after people, even universities, hospitals etc.

It's a very human way of recognising our past. Why do people hate this suggestion so much?

magicbastarder

that's a strong claim!

Flinty997

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120945653#Comment_120945653

Lots of places have ended up renaming things as a result.

I prefer short snappy acronyms. Easier when it's going to be used a lot.

GerardKeating

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058308171/renaming-dublins-rail-lines-after-people

We renamed many of the mainline railway stations in 1966, and people still refer to Westland Row, Amiens Street stations and the like.

GerardKeating

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120945637#Comment_120945637

No, there have been worse.

Flinty997

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120945530#Comment_120945530

We should really have a train line called the Bram Stoker. Bit of nightmare though.

brianc89

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120945780#Comment_120945780

Hahaha yeah lol. I always refer to Pearse as Westland Row Station. As do we all.

CrabRevolution

There's a huge overlap between crap ideas and the poster subsequently saying some version of "touched a nerve have I....?"

Hibernicis

Some ideas are best left in the pub. This is one of them.

EnzoScifo

the Brogheda and Docknooth lines? :D

whisky_galore

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120945653#Comment_120945653

I couldn't care less what other countries do.

Bang of Stalinism off of it tbh, esp the naming of things after war "heroes".

cantalach

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120945653#Comment_120945653

Because one person's hero can often be another person's villain. Also, even in the case of non-divisive individuals generally held in high regard, attitudes can change utterly over time, sometimes slowly but sometimes in spectacular falls from grace. And being dead doesn't provide any certainty that attitudes won't change because we often only learn dark truths about people posthumously.

cython

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120985232#Comment_120985232

Exactly the last sentence here. Even limiting it to dead people as was proposed earlier isn't safe, as Trinity learned in the last couple of years: https://trinitynews.ie/2022/02/schrodinger-lecture-theatre-to-be-renamed-the-physics-lecture-theatre/

KrisW1001

Ignoring the difficulty of predicting how future generations will regard today’s famous figures, it’s a bad idea because the same set of names will inevitably be used for other things in the country (hospitals, schools, streets) and it’s almost certain that the rail services named after people won’t serve those other places named after them, thus causing confusion. Transport system naming is supposed to reduce confusion, not increase it.

GerardKeating

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120985830#Comment_120985830

You mean like Connolly Station, and Connolly Hospital ?

L1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120988043#Comment_120988043

Named 50 and 39 years after death respectively so nothing to do with each other, and the latter is/was James Connolly Memorial Hospital not Connolly Hospital.

Bigger thing there is how long it was until they were named. Most "name something after X" suggestions happen when they're barely cold in the ground. Even 39 puts a 1984 cutoff in place which puts a lot of potential suggestions out of reach.

DCC won't name anything after you until you're dead 20 years; or 100 years since your birth.

newmember2

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120945783#Comment_120945783

I say give a name to all the Dublin bus routes, a much more friendly and humanistic(!) approach. I got off the Deirdre there this morning and had to run for the Johnny...and nearly missed it! 😮

brianc89

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120985830#Comment_120985830

I was thinking, the next generation is hardly going to see us that badly. We're not slave owners like ...

.... but then I realized we're the generation who are killing the planet. 🫣

Economics101

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120985830#Comment_120985830

You mention confusion. Soon after the renaming of mainline rail stations by Todd Andrews, I remember seeing an origin and destination chalked on the side ot a train at Kingsbridge: It read "Heuston to Kent". I wonder what an English visitor would have thunk.

whisky_galore

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120988548#Comment_120988548

The names seem to have stuck to the main stations; Heuston, Connolly, Pearse, Kent.

The regional ones less so, even abandoned by CIE/Irish Rail themselves; Casement, Ceannt, O'Hanrahan etc, many would struggle to say where these are.