02 July, 2008

Soulless Stations

Don't you think that even for a capitalistic society auctioning the names of your metro station is a rather a bit extreme?

I wouldn't be surprised to read something like this in tourist guides a year from now:

" To visit Dubai's famous Gold Souk, take the Coca Cola station in Jumeira, go past BMW,McDonalds,BurgerKing and Cadbury stations and finally get off at Toyota Station"
Posted by LocalExpat at 7:17 am

8 comments:

Ahsan Ali said...

Have you heard the rumor that the RTA is going to outsource the resolution of accidents (is that the right term) to a private third party. Less pressure on the traffic police :D

Disclaimer: This is strictly hearsay.

02 July, 2008 09:05
Stained said...

hmm.....I am glad they have spared the Salahuddin station....that's the one I'm going to use the most...

Anyway this naming business is good in a financial point of view but what about the cities identity....we can't have stations like Coco-Cola instead of Dubai Trade center....its a little ridiculous....

02 July, 2008 10:09
Alexander said...

I don't get it. I used to go from Chicago Beach to Mothercat Roundabout, from Safestway R/A to Ramada, from Galadari Roundabout across to Defence Roundabout. So we also had Bidet, Falcon and Fish, which weren't organisationally derived, but so many directions and landmarks not just in the UAE but around the region, have always been named after companies.

I think the RTA thing sucks, but the whole 'I can't believe I'll soon be stopping at Pepsi Cola' just passes me by...

02 July, 2008 12:56
Seabee said...

I've been ranting about this for a while, not only because of the tackiness of it but also because it will be confusing. Generic names that we may end up with, like Coca-Cola, aren't going to help travellers. Also, experience around the world is that company-sponsored names change very frequently too, and the Metro deal is for limited periods of time anyway.

Alexander, I think the point is that the old Fish Roundabout, Mothercat Roundabout etc were informal names that we gave landmarks in the absence of road names to help us get around. If the Metro stations do that, maybe like Al Ghurair or Mall of the Emirates, than it won't be so bad. But if they're just generically named after brands that's a whole different thing.

02 July, 2008 13:06
rosh said...

" think the point is that the old Fish Roundabout, Mothercat Roundabout etc were informal names...."

True, perhaps informal. However, there was an identity, a soul to those names. I don't understand why RTA is unable to formalize such names? A Fish or Mothercat R/O shall always be part of DXB's identity. Likewise SHJ's Clock tower or Quran R/O's.

02 July, 2008 17:36
Dubai Jazz said...

Doubleletter,
This rumor has been around for quite sometime, three to four years. I read in the GN at the time that the traffic police is considering such step. It's highly unlikely they'd it though.

03 July, 2008 21:12
Lirun said...

in san jose costa rica there is a coca cola station.. it does them no favours.. the place is herendous..

http://gocentralamerica.about.com/od/costaricaguide/p/CocaColaBus.htm

04 July, 2008 04:01
Anonymous said...

They are leasing of the stations for companies and families who are welling to BUY.
I guess they try to make money out of everything, even the name stations in the metro.
I understand building GREAT infrastructure requires alot of money but that doesn't mean go sell stations names for 10 yearS!

05 July, 2008 02:18

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