QUOTE
The Delaware River Port Authority is considering selling naming rights to its PATCO Hi-Speedline commuter rail stations.
The story is here. My thoughts:
1. PATCO is not commuter rail, it's heavy rail.
2. They can't use AT&T as a sponsor, since SEPTA already rebranded its entire Pattison Avenue station at the south end of the Broad Street Subway.
3. To an outsider, rebranding stations as SEPTA did makes them user unfriendly. Is saturating a station with the name and advertising really going to change the mind of a visitor, and is it more important than the traveler knowing where he is? PATCO is a little different than SEPTA, in that the latter is oriented towards one city, whereas PATCO runs from Philly to many stops in different municipalities in New Jersey. The towns themselves and the businesses within them will want to keep the identity of the station to encourage people to visit their towns.