As Spacing Toronto contributor Sean Marshall posted the other day, the Greater Toronto Transportation Authority (GTTA) has rebranded itself Metrolinx. The comment section of that post did not yield one positive response for our readers and also included a number of suggested new names.
So, we’ve taken it upon ourselves to host a little contest: leave your suggested names for the GTTA in the comment section.
Spacing editors will narrow the list down and have our readers vote on a name on Friday. We’ll give a set of subway buttons to the reader who first made the winning name suggestion.
photo by Rannie Turnigan
89 comments
Oh, geez, where to start? How about:
Greater Toronto Transportation Authority (yes, it is actually better than the new name)
MoveTO
Metrolink
GTALink
TransTO
TransToronto
This was my name suggestion for the new subway cars, but I guess it can be used here to. I’m not fully proud of it but from a mass-appeal point of view, it could work.
Suggestion:
Pronto
Why:
– rhymes with Toronto
– implies speed
– sounds vaguely international
– cheesy in a lovable sort of way
Since they’re going to be running GO Transit…
How about “GO TO”
(as in GO Transit, Toronto [T.O.]
or
“GO Toronto”
or
“or GO To (somewhere)”
Name: TART (Toronto Area Regional Transit)
Tagline: “Take this TART home and you won’t regret it in the morning”
TransitToronto – nothing fancy, a kernel of the TTC.
David: I think your last two suggestions might confuse the LGBT community a bit.
What about something simple? Does it have to be snappy? I mean for petesake, the site that Greg P. posted from London, the group is called “Transport for London”. It is what it is and that’s all that it is.
Still, I have some acronym silliness to suggest as well:
– GTA Transit (or is GTAT still confusing?)
– GTAGO (GTA and GO, or like “gotta go!”)
– MoveGTA
I’d suggest everyone remember to not be quite so Toronto-oriented in their thinking on this. The GTTA/Metrolinx serves regional transportation interests: The GREATER Toronto area and Hamilton (GTAH). Long term the idea is to operate all day-two way service between community hubs. It’s not all about Toronto so avoid terms that only make use of the word or reference the city too strongly. I’d also remember that transit is a priority but from what I gather they also have some sway and authority over other modes of transportation too.
Just some (hopefully helpful) thoughts.
Iain
I like the above suggestions…we could also try
like the proposal
MoveOntario – MO for short…MO goes with GO
TransitOntario or TransOntario – TO
TART – Toronto Area Rail and Transit
MOM – Moving Ontario & Metro
GHOST – Golden Horseshoe of Ontario Speeding Transit
Pronto is good…it goes with the Presto fare card. Could you name it like a sports team? Like GTF – Greater Toronto Falcon…lol
I remember that one of the criteria for the Pronto name — apparently — was that it worked well in English and French.
Is that a relevant criterion for a better-named GTTA, too?
SORTA
Southern Ontario Regional Transit Authority.
Are you coming from Toronto to Hamilton this weekend? Sorta. They’re making me go through Oakville first!
I liked GTTA best. They should just go back to that.
Where did “metrolinx” come from, and why did they opt for such a hideous thing? Bizarre. What about OAF? Ontario Authority of Freighting (humans).
Pronto has another benefit. It’s Italian and means ready. “Ready when you are”.
Only one trouble; If it was constantly ready it wouldn’t have to publish timetables.
“on y va” (the french slogan) would make a great name.
The “linx” thing seems to have been an attempt to emphasize connections, so how about:
GoldConnect (from the Golden Horsehoe)
ConnectOntario
ConnectToronto
Oops, forgot ConnectTO
GO Ultra (which, if it wants to be an acronym, would be the Government of Ontario Urban Linkage and Transit Revitalization Authority)
Eh… for what it’s worth, I’ll get away from the whole “acronym’s must stand for something” argument and suggest Cygnus again.
I think a name to produce a clever pun in a slogan will get old quickly; and if the point is to produce an elegant, attractive brand, then Cygnus gives us a migrating bird, a constellation, and gets us away from the “toronto-centric” issue.
Though I’d stick by using a Canada Goose as a brand, although it turns out Cygnus means swan. You know, gotta have something local and distinct.
Richard.
First one that came to me:
TransisTOR
ConnecTor
As this will only link a small part of the entire province:
IMOO
(Ignore Most of Ontario)
“Milk it for all it’s worth.” (thanks to punch)
Richard, I love Cygnus – but there is a Cygnus Group in Canada doing signage. It may be too much of a conflict.
http://www.cygnusgroup.ca/
Well, I have to disagree with Iain that the name shouldn’t be Toronto centric, because if you look at Transport for London, London is the incorporation of many, many townships and to muddle the name to something too regional weakens the name in my opinion. I don’t think that it’s far-fetched to hypothesize that the name Toronto will eventually incorporate the rest of the GTA and we can finally drop this nonsensical Greater Toronto bull.
However, with the idea of not using Toronto in the name, how about this.
GreaterTransport
or
OMB
(sorry, I can’t help but take a stab at this judiciary board of jerks whose original mandate was to facilitate inter-city transport but who now chose to do the work of city councillors so that some(read: many) councillors can pretend to side with their constituents while bowing to the higher authority of the OMB and therefore retain their seats while not actually making any decisions)
Otherwise I suggest the following
TorontoTransport
(I’d just like to see a name that gets right to the bloody point without trying to appeal to any particular style or slang, and the name sounds implicitly authoritative  thereby recollecting the “Authority” in the old GTTA name)
I like SORTA, it made me laugh! 🙂
How about:
Region Of Toronto Frustrating Land Carrying Operations Public Transit Express Region
Of course, there’s always:
BURB HUB
That could work.
i agree with mkm, the french slogan is the best thing about it. on y va!
The more I think of it, SORTA does make sense.
It gets the job done, only half-assed.
Haha, some of these are great, specifically, TransisTOR, SORTA and TART.
Now for something more immature, since our city is more horizontally heavy, I think they should split the system into eastern and western divisions. Then we could have Toronto Eastern Alliance of Transit, and same thing for western I guess.
I think Richard has been talking to Steve Munro and that Cygnus is really a back door to getting a GTA-wide network of swan boats running.
I agree with the comment on keeping it simple and descriptive like TfL rather than going with an acronym that will sound dated in 10 years. I believe back in the 80s Hamilton considered changing the HSR’s name since their street railways had been gone for decades by then, and one of the options was HART, maybe for Hamilton Area Regional Transit? Glad they decided not to. (Hmmm… Toronto Area Regional Transit aka TART… ugh…)
MEGATRAN!
The whole renaming business is kind of silly, since we are only talking about the coordinating agency name here (usually a dry acronym), not the name of the transit service itself (the part that usually gets the sexy moniker).
For example, in Chicago you have the CTA (TTC), Metra (GO), and Pace (Viva) all overseen by the Regional Transportation Authority, or RTA. So I favor a boring acronym name. GTTA was fine, it just needed tweaking to avoid airport confusion. Like:
MTTA – Metropolitan Toronto Transit Agency
TMTA – Toronto Metro Transportation Agency
TMATA – Toronto Metropolitan Area Transit Agency
SOTA – Southern Ontario Transit Authority
LOTA – Lake Ontario Transportation Authority
TRTA – Toronto Regional Transit Agency
If we must get all wordy, “pronto” is definitely the frontrunner given the Presto card. Some others:
trillium – an easy choice! Easy!
enRoute – if Air Canada’s magazine will allow it
canoe – sounds local enough, involves movement
portage – another local word with movement
CONvey – the CON is for Central Ontario
CONnect – another Central Ontario one
unita – something about linking, connecting
MoveON – oops, already taken (moveon.org)
Finally, some overly clever word-acronym hybrids:
TRIP – Toronto Regional Intercity Passage
TRIO Transit – Toronto Region / Intercity Ontario
TOTE – Transportation over Toronto Environs
One last word – anyone who deliberately tries to avoid the word “Toronto” in the name needs a reality check. Yes, one of the goals here is to facilitate suburb to suburb travel, but Toronto is the city at the centre of this urban conflagration and the place providing 90% of the passenger trips. The people in DC used Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority for an area covering 3 states, so I don’t see why we can’t say “Toronto”. Quit pandering – that’s what got us into this mess in the first place.
I’m also enamoured of “On Y va!” Translated directly, it means “Let’s go!” Which of course brings us back to GO Transit, which is a great name, and which is an organization that will soon fall under the GTTA’s umbrella of responsibility anyway. Whence the need for any name other than that to begin with?
I suggest calling it the GO Authority, an organization that operates GO Transit, builds GO hubs, and funds transit projects throughout the region. It has a somewhat Soviet ring to it, I admit, but I like it anyway.
I suspect there is one unbreakable rule in this name game: the name or acronym, whatever it is, must not include the word “Toronto.” It’s a regional organization made up of municipalities that don’t like having their own identities subsumed within Toronto’s.
A little more wikipedia shows that Branta is the genus for “goose”… so if Cygnus Group gets huffy about their name and not wanting to share it… we could go that way. It even sounds more acronymish.
Anyway, saying it honoured Joseph Brant wouldn’t be a bad thing for Ontario as far as recognizing our pass and people we’d rather gloss over historically.
Richard.
(But I prefer Cygnus)
Why must it be an acronym? Do we really need another acronym?
As for Trillium, well yes, it would be an easy choice if Metrolink served all of Ontario.
I think Portage and Pronto are the strongest of the others on the list.
-PRONTO, as you mentioned, relating to Presto (although I’m not a fan of Presto). Unfortunately it’s not an english or french word, which dissociates it from its locale.
-PORTAGE, recollecting the GTA’s origin as a port of trade, its heritage, and denoting travel over land. Also nice that it’s one word instead of an invented word or an acronym. THE BIG BONUS IS THAT IT WORKS IN ENGLISH AND FRENCH!!!
Toronto Area Transportation Authority = TATA
or
Lake Ontario Shore Transit = LOST
I’ll vote for GOTO already, I like it! It builds on a brand we already know. Another variation, ToGO would also work well. The marketing is practically done for it, “Where you want ToGO”, “The Better Way, ToGo”, etc. A few other that came to mind are:
– GoMetro
– Viva (it’s slick and relatively language neutral. Why not make it regional?)
– ToTransit
– GTA Rocket
Some great ideas above.
I’ll throw two ideas in since I was the first to blast the name Metrolinx here. Might as well offer a solution with all my criticism.
Serious suggestion (are you listening GTTA / GTHA-RTP?): Citylink. It links cities. Simple. The name is used already, by Mississauga Transit for its automated phone schedule service, but should be easy to appropriate.
Less serious (but oh so urban kool): T-DOT. T-DOT already has name recognition, and the bonus is that it reminds me of D-DOT (Detroit Department of Transportation), .
Dammit. someone beat me to TATA.
Or simply MetroLink
But Toronto Area Transportation Authority sounds really nice, and professional.
I kinda like SORTA & Pronto (which I’m sure could be acronymized if need be – Public Regional something something Toronto).
But uSkyscraper’s suggestion TRIP sounds best to me. Though I’d amend it to TRIPS – Toronto Regional Intercity Passenger System/Service. It doesn’t as far as I know mean anything in French, but the GTA has an awful lot of allophones so I’m not sure how important that truly is.
Came up with a few here…
– transiTO
– destinaTO
– GreaTORtrans
– pronT.O. (slight variation)
– waypoint
– vecTOR
– Arriba (Def: Used as an exclamation of pleasure, approval, or elation)
– ArriVa! (also works in francais, and connects well with viva)
How about “Truckosaurus”?
GOTO is a problem because the pronunciation is nonobvious. Pronounced as “go toâ€Â (the old BASIC command – TRS-80 forever) or the Japanese surname “gohtohâ€Â?
LMAO
Link Metro (Toronto) and Ontario (eventually I hope). Lorax has a good point. Transit falls on its ass frequently and far too close to its core. The TTC Guelph and Hamilton lines showed what could be done.
Transit is a sham until it at least makes an effort to reach out into the boonies. GRT needs lines linking Petersburg, Baden and New Hamburg. Until there are alternatives within a few miles of St Agatha, Philipsburg etcetera MOM’s taxi is the only way.
Etobicokans’ 501 is a joke. Why wonder that megalopolis is cycle hostile.
Come on, the only ones truly opposed to having their municipality’s “identity” subsumed by Toronto (as if it hasn’t been already) are local politicians clinging to their outdated, arbitrary boundaries. Of course these also happen to be the GTTA’s board members…
yeah, I think MetroLink is the best one. I think the x at the end (not to mention the ostensive logo) is the main component of tackiness in “Metrolinx.”
After reading all the suggestions for a name change, I can see why GTTA used a professional branding agency to come up with “Metrolinx”. I don’t want to insult anybody, but unless you work for an ad agency or have a background in marketing, you’re all amateurs and you don’t understand any of the issues involved in a name change. Metrolinx is an excellent name – it totally captures the mandate of the organization, which is to ‘link’ metropolitan areas from Hamilton to Barry to Oshawa (sorry, fellow Torontonians, but this time its NOT all about us). None of the juvenile suggestions here come close. Metrolinx is easy to pronounce, it’s a good length for a wordmark (if you don’t know what a ‘wordmark’ is you just proved my point about amateurs) and it’s a WORD, not a stupid acronym.
Shame on Spacing! Instead of getting behind a legitimately green initiative that has a fighting chance of actually improving public transit in this province, you’re playing the Sun game and trying to make yourselves look credible by pissing on it. Pathetic. And we wonder why the rest of the country hates Toronto. Shame on you!
Hmmm … Portage … What you have to do with your shopping when the Queen car gets short turned.
Pronto … we already have a farecard Presto … Pronto implies speed and availability, neither of which are hallmarks of transit hereabouts. Presto implies the ability to make things disappear (puff of smoke optional). The TTC and GO are very good at that sort of thing.
I just wish that metrolinx would decide on whether they have a “M” or an “m” on the start of their name. If you can’t even get your own brand right, how can you run a railway?
… I have a suggestion for a better contest: rename http://mattbmedia.com/.
I really like Pronto, although it might be problematic if they decide to sell it as “PronTO” and then we have pr0n Toronto.
Toronto Area Transportation Authority is excellent. I can imagine some clever campaign where the throwaway line is “Tata!” The acronym is a bit too precious to use all the time, but the straightforward title it stands for balances it out.
Pegasus >>
We don’t like the name. We like the project. Please don’t confuse the two. And critiquing the name should not result in the rest of the country hating Toronto. That’s a weird jump to make.
Besides, Metrolinx is NOT a good name. Everyone here has given decent reasons why it stinks and users of a system don’t really care about the process of how to come up with a name. They want a good name, not something so oddly generic.
Google “Pronto”. 17,200,000 hits.
See? Coming up with a new name isn’t that easy, is it?
Blackett, sorry but you’re way out of your depth. You’re a graphic designer with no background in branding. You don’t care about the issue, you’re just trying to score points at the expense of the project and THAT is what I object to.
Easy to criticize, not so easy to offer usable alternatives.
Sad.
Glad you know my career background. Too bad you don’t know about the work I’ve done on branding. Obviously, you’ve overlooked the most obvious brand I’ve built: Spacing. Its too bad my graphic design and branding website is out of date cuz I could easily put your assertion that I’m “way out of my depth”. My former clients would take issue with your flippant remark.
Please don’t tell me what I or the magazine cares about. The GTTA is a great step and MoveOntario is an excellent plan. If you’ve ever read this blog, you would know that we at Spacing care about this topic dearly. We don’t need poorly executed brands to be the basis of easy blog posts — we’d rather be writing about transit plans for the GTA.
Showing support for the Metrolinx brand only emphasizes any kind of branding deficiency you possess.
A couple of questions:
1. I agree that Metrolinx is not a acronym. But how is Metrolinx a word? The first thing I see (besides my Spacing post) when I google Metrolinx is the text “did you mean: Metrolink”.
2. Who was the first Spacing contributor to criticize the GTTA’s new name and website? Please send some of your venom my way, where it is deserved.
3. Does it matter in a way whether we’re professional branders or not? Just about every comment here, at Urban Toronto Forum, BlogTO, and elsewhere has been critical. If you can’t curry the favour of the great unwashed, how good is a brand anyway, no matter how many consultants were hired to develop it?
4. And you know it’s spelt Barrie, right?
Pegasus said —- “I don’t want to insult anybody, but unless you work for an ad agency or have a background in marketing, you’re all amateurs and you don’t understand any of the issues involved in a name change”
Pegasus: Was it non-amatures that launched the website with a picture of Brampton, UK? Are you saying that is level of professionalism you think the rabble here can’t touch?
Pegasus, are you a branding expert yourself. How do you know what people on this forum do? For all we know, I wouldn’t be surprised if many people on this site work in marketing.
Metrolinx is a just a terrible name for a brand. If you can justify a marketing reason for calling it linx instead of links, I’d like to see you try.
Sean has created a brand. Any real creative knows that that having the word “Brand Designer” on a business card is bullshit. Everybody creates brands.
Many of these names blow Metrolinx out of the water and Metrolinx hasn’t shown us anything to prove that they have created a brand itself. Their marketing is disjointed, and amateur.
With pleasure.
Yes Sean, I read your post. “I find the name forced and unimaginative, and very 1995”. Very 1995? What does that mean?
Anyone can post an opinion – it’s a free country. But if you set yourself up as an expert, how about backing it up? Why don’t you tell ‘the great unwashed’ (your term) about the academic or professional background that qualifies you to trash Metrolinx? Yeah, if you’re developing a name for a provincial agency spending taxpayer money, you better make damn sure you’re a professional brander.
C’mon you guys, admit it. You can criticize but you can’t come up with a single viable alternative.
Once again, shame on Spacing for trying to develop readership at the expense of a legitimate green intiative.
and BTW, you know it’s spelt ‘spelled’, right?
I would have thought the ‘X’ was obvious – cross connections.
Well wouldn’t Link also mean the same. It’s the same concept of putting a logo like Coke, next to a big word saying Coke.
It’s obvious that they didn’t get any professional help with the name. I bet we can guarantee the name was created in a meeting of the board of directors.
Sorry Matt. Forgot to include you on that comment about the Spacing Brand.
Jayomatic: Worse. I thought it smacked of a “Name the transit authority!” contest at the office where the prize was a $10 gift certificate at Blockbuster.
Pegasus: I thought the entire purpose of this thread was to offer “viable alternatives.”
Getting back on track…
I favour a simple, descriptive name that we can be sure will stick for many years after certain fads have passed. I think that the confusion between the GTTA and the Airports Authority was a legitimate reason to look for a new moniker, but metrolinx is a but flashy for an agency that will only be planning and coordinating the system, not necessarily running it. With that in mind:
TGT – works both as “Transport for Greater Toronto” and the French “Transports du Grand Toronto” (the original French name for the GTTA was the RTGT, la Régie des Transports du Grand Toronto”
RTAT – The “Regional Transport Authority of Toronto” or la “Régie des Transports Autonome du Toronto” (not an exact translation but it works)
also…
Toronto Transport
TransportToronto
TransportTO
Matt, do you have access to IP addresses of the posters here? I have a weird suspicion that this Pegasus character actually a typography expert posing as a branding expert.
hmm maybe…
MET – some acronym for MetroTransport or w/e
Metro – well it would be cool if we could call it metro but a little well overused around the world.
andddd my brain went dead again!
anything than metrolinx is better.
Transport for Toronto (TfT) in the UK style… perhaps we can aspire to have service that good.
Horseshoe Transit
What’s in a name?
I think Metrolinx is okay, but its website sure needs improvement.
But if we’re looking at alternatives, I would rule out all suggestions with references to Toronto– since it _is_ a regional transit authority.
I do like to play on the ‘GO’ (Government of Ontario) and the Golden Horseshoe theme if possible.
So what about these in preferential order:
– interGOld (playing on the interregional theme)
– transGOld
– goGold (hard to pronounce)
Thanks DavidF;
Again, as Torontonians we have to remember that the GTTA has a mandate that extends well beyond Etobicoke. An initiative like this needs the suport of people living in Vaughn, Burlington, Hamilton, Barrie, Oshawa and all the communities in between. Therefore, right out of the box, the name has to be politically neutral.
Also, make no assumptions about the role of Metrolinx. Who knows what they might ‘run’ in the future. What you are calling ‘flashy’ is actually ‘marketable’ – it will stick in people’s minds in a way that a long, multi-word name cannot.
Plus the name has to be unique – i.e. the Google test. This is vital. Notice that they actually got the url!!!
I’m telling you, whomever created this name is damn good.
I’m curious about your expertise, now that you bring it up. I do not claim to have any expertise in the field of “branding” myself, but it’s like how Potter Stewart put it – I know bad branding when I see it, and the vast majority seems to concur.
I do, however, see myself as an advocate for active and sustainable transportation, and feel that despite the best intentions of Rob MacIssac and the GTTA, unfortunately the brand is terrible and the website (is so far) worthy of ridicule. If you want to take a contrary opinion and say that the name is great, well, that’s great. But stop trying to look for hidden agendas here.
“Once again, shame on Spacing for trying to develop readership at the expense of a legitimate green intiative.”
That’s a laugh! Perhaps you should go on Steve Munro’s site and trash him for criticizing the TTC, another legitimate green initiative, because he obviously has no interest in improving that organization.
Pegasus would seem to work for middling branding firms, and isn’t doing his/her industry any favours by defending a bad and sloppy rebrand, at taxpayer expense.
“this Pegasus character actually a typography expert posing as a branding expert”
You mean this site only has ONE reader who doesn’t think all things Spacing are beyond criticism? If that’s the case, he seems to have no problem attaching his name to what he posts, every time.
I dont’t understand. Is it that the name of metrolinx with no picture or real sence of a logo, the logo?
No name — this blog has many readers who disagree with many things said in Spacing. It would be a boring place if that didn’t happen.
I don’t know who that person was talking about, but I only know of one typography expert that might come up in this context and he has already weighed in with his own deconstruction of the “failed redesign” of their webpage:
http://blog.fawny.org/2007/12/04/metrolinx/
At least the creative genius behind Metrolinx will take the heat off of the people at Tourism Toronto who approved the Toronto Unlimited brand.
I actually like Metrolinx. It gets to the point of what it offers- it’s links the metro together, which people seem to be forgetting isn’t only Toronto. It’s cheesy but it’s easy to remember, which is likely key for people, sorta like GO (tho that was originally an acronym).
I’d liked GTTA more to be honest but the closeness it has to the GTAA, which is obvious well branded for most people, would only work against the cause.
I don’t hate Metrolinx as much as some others do here, but it seems very weak (and derivative). Although, not offensive and will get a shurg from most in non-transit geek circles.
I’m not brilliant enough to come up with any better names at this hour, but my favourites in order would be…
1. DestinaTO
2. PronTO
3. Transport for Greater Toronto (TFGT)
4. Portage
5. Golden Horseshoe Transportation Authority (GHTA)
“I’m telling you, whomever created this name is damn good.”
And I’m telling you, whoever you are, that whether or not they’re “damn good,” Metrolinx is run of the mill. It’s dull, uninspired, and is already dated.
Sorry, but all your branding authority doesn’t mean anything in the face of public opinion. And I can assure you that Spacing opinion accounts for many professionals in all veins of city building.
You better stop now before you tarnish the reputation of the more respectable members of your “profession.”
I vote for “Pronto”.
It’s easy to remember, evokes ideas of speed and readiness, and doesn’t sound like it was created by a committee, like so many acronym names.
“Viva” already has great name recognition – and that isn’t an acronym … just a lively word … proof that a catchy short word can work as a brand.
Myself, I still like Total Mega Transit Network.
But then, I also think some posters here are taking this contest entirely too seriously.
And does anybody know if the GTTA did use a marketing firm to come up with their new name? The look, feel and construction of their website suggests they had no professional help.
Was thinking about this more last night while riding around on the NYC subways (I have a long commute on the very non-RER-like A train). I still favour acronyms given that we are not naming an actual transit service here, just an obscure powerless agency that runs nothing, funds nothing and has little ability to enact its ideas. TGT is a great suggestion given the must-work-in-French parameter, and it sounds appropriate for a planning group.
Let’s revisit the emotional (for 905’ers) issue of including “Toronto” in the name. You can break down American agency names into four categories:
– names that include the principal city despite serving a wide region – such as DART (which serves the whole Dallas-Ft.Worth region). This and others could easily be a precendent for including Toronto in the name, case closed.
– names that include a much broader region than the one actually served – such as Utah Transit Authority (which only serves metro Salt Lake). This makes the case for a name including “Southern Ontario” or similar.
– names based on geography, where such features exist – such as Sound Transit or Valley Transit Authority or BART or MBTA. This doesn’t really apply to Toronto unless you start using awkward words like Lakeshore or Golden Horseshoe or Don-Humber Watershed… we simply lack the geography. (Ravine Transit?)
– names that are completely generic and neutral – such as MTA, or RTD, or Metro. Some dislike this approach, but it is obviously where the GTTA board was coming from. The problem is that many of the good names have already been taken, multiple times, a real problem in the google era. The GTTA tried to fix this by throwing “x”s around but this was the so-1995 approach that drove us all nuts. The better option might be mash-ups of _real_ words like the excellent “CityLink” suggestion. Or maybe “TransUrban”.
Bottom line – pick a name because it makes sense, is short, and can be remembered. Don’t explicitly cut Toronto out of it for the sake of political correctness. There is already way too much politics in this agency, leaving us with a marginally useful thinktank that must pander to, say, Pickering voters instead of being a powerful, independent authority that can actually effect transit policy for the greater good of the urban area with fists full of cash.
Just did a google check and CityLink is the DBA moniker of the Greater Peoria Mass Transit District. Hey, if it works in Peoria…
USkyscraper: One of the last transit systems I’ve been on was MTA Maryland – which fits into two of your categories. It mostly just serves Baltimore, but also runs the commuter services into both Baltimore and Washington. Municipal systems serve some of the counties and cities outside Baltimore, like Annapolis and Howard County. Though New Jersey Transit is a rare case where it does serve the entire state.
One of my favourite examples though is SMART – the acronym has a catchy name, but the letters stand for an overly redundant and not very descriptive name -Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation. Quick! Name the city region it serves! Another good one is CAT – Citizens’ Area Transit. Which citizens? Name that metro region! I have rode both of these systems.
OK, who remembers when GO Transit (one day to become Metrostynx) was the Toronto Area Transit Operating Authority or TATOA, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GO_Transit for a short history.
I kinda like Pronto, and I really like it in conjunction with Presto. Presto! Pronto! Nice.
Not sure why the GTTA folks didn’t just stick with the ‘GO Transit’ brand — perhaps with an updated logo that gets rid of that awful 70s era green — extending it beyond regional trains/buses to the agency’s expanded mandate.
Andy: It was pointed out to me that it’s because GO is basically an acronym for Goverment of Ontario which would contradict the area of governance of the GTTA.
But Greg, GO Transit has had that issue for forty years now, with only occasional gripes from Ottawa locals. The area the GTTA is interested in is pretty much the same as GO’s service area.
My suggestion is: TOgo
pronounced ‘TeeOhGo’
it has a historic ‘aboriginal’ness about it similar Toronto;
uses the currently popular ‘TO’ symbol/brand for Toronto;
and
uses the historically recognized ‘GO’ name (as in ‘Transit’)
thats ‘tiogo’ – spelled TOgo; short and sweet and new’ish’ despite historical allusions!
[and it’s close to TCAT (which i wanted to be TOcat) the name of sustainable transportation in TO!]
GO TRANSIT
GO LINX
LINX TRANSIT (LT)
TRANSIT LINX (TL)