I am not a big fan of the order of the words in the name; seems a bit awkward.

"Metra Arlington Heights Station"

Most people would say "Arlington Heights Metra Station", but if you want the service label first, then I would say "Metra Station - Arlington Heights", "Metra - Arlington Heights", or perhaps "Metra - Arlington Heights Station" to break up the original a bit.

Also, spaces before and after a dash add a lot to readability:
"CTA California Station-Green Line" vs "CTA California Station - Green Line"

Like it or not, someone is going to be searching while driving, so readability is crucial.

Minor nit, "drive point" should be "navigation point."



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My four bits ... that'd be a nibble for anyone counting...

A short tangent: I think station naming and railroad segment naming are linked conventions and should be addressed in tandem. Naming, at least in Area 1, has been a mess of whatever people think the railroad is called (for reference, the IDOT railroad map is here). Railroad naming needs to remain national standard and not pick-up the "Metra" moniker.

On station naming: I tend to agree that no one really thinks about the lines, but Metra itself calls them out everywhere you look on their site and printed material. So, as locals may just think "Metra," folks not familiar may actually look for "Rock Island District" or "(RI)." This is essentially the same as using "Blue Line" in CTA naming.

I tend to favor following the naming convention clarification here being efforted in the forums (current text is on the places page). It isn't how I'd personally do it in this instance, but I think if we have a global or NA standard we can re-purpose, it makes sense to use it. In this case, the carrier-line combination could be considered the "area" in the standard. So, we'd end up with primary names like:

• Main St Station - Metra BNSF
• Kenosha Station - Metra UP-N
• Ogilvie Transportation Center - Metra
• Union Station - Amtrak / Metra
• Belleville Station - MetroLink
• Forest Park Station - CTA Blue Line

I like the use of alternate names on places when appropriate and I can still see the appeal in this case. If someone were to spell out "Milwaukee District," rather than the Metra abbreviations MD-N or MD-W, it may be helpful.

This would run in conjunction with railroad naming so "Main St Station - Metra BNSF" would appear adjacent "BNSF Railway" on the map (were the RR name to render).

Tidbits
Some points from other parts of the discussion...

1. It's "MetroLink," not "Metrolink" when it's a single word (although it appears as two words occasionally on the Metro site).
2. It's "stop point" not "drive point" or "navigation point." (for reference, see places page).

Content revised and open for public comment before voting.

The following content is being proposed for addition to the Illinois state wiki:

Railroads and Stations

The goal of the update is to provide guidance to editors on the naming of railroads and railway stations in Illinois.

The additions will be made to the Places page.

Public Request for Comment
This proposal will be open for discussion through June 11th. At that time, discussion will close, and a vote on the proposal will be taken.

No discussion having taken place in the forum for a week, we'll move on to voting.

In keeping with regional voting, anyone editing in the state may cast a ballot.

• Area Managers, with an approved editable area principally in Illinois, may cast a binding ballot. A simple majority of those ballots will approve the proposal.
• Other Illinois editors may cast a non-binding ballot. The results of the non-binding ballots will be considered in developing further guidance and help us assess community support.
• Editors not active in Illinois should not cast a ballot.

The text of the proposed change can be found HERE

VOTE HERE

The polls will be open until 7:00pm CDT, Wednesday, Jun 22, 2016.

Voting having been completed, the votes are:

• In favor: 6
• Against: 0

The proposal is ADOPTED.
The Illinois Wiki will be amended as soon as practical.

Thank you for your participation.

The places sub-page has been updated in the wiki.

I debated the order, I think there are arguments on both sides. The reasons I came down on the side of putting the system name first is that some of the station names are long enough that the "Metra" or "CTA" could get truncated off on the first search screen, so you're left with a search result that doesn't indicate it's a station. And if you DO search by "Arlington Heights Metra Station" you'll still get the right search result (in fact, you do today, and it's currently "Metra - Arlington Heights").

On the spaces around the dash, I agree that improves readability.