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What’s In a Transit Station Name?

The Washington Metro Board was discussing station names changes this morning. On the agenda:  items like changing Navy Yard-to Navy Yard-Ballpark station and adding Old Town to the King Street station name in Alexandria. Though seemingly innocuous, these debates can be surprisingly contentious. In the past, Metro has erred on the side of inclusion, leading to unwieldy station names like Archives-Navy Memorial-Penn Quarter.

It would be nice however if metro station names could get simpler, perhaps even, in our information saturation age, reduced to just a symbol or image.

French photographer Janol Apin has applied such an idea to the Paris Metro, with formidable whimsy.