Is Pineapple Road a silly name for a station?

[duncanp]

So "Pineapple Road" has won the public vote to be the name of one of the new stations on the Camp Hill line in Birmingham.

Supporters of this decision say the name is "..memorable and better explained where the station is located..."

This is all very well if you happen to know that Pineapple Road is in the Stirchley area, but not otherwise.

Or to be more accurate, the Southern end of Pineapple Road is in Stirchley, with the Northern end being in Kings Heath rather than Stirchley.

Personally I think this is a mistake, as the name of a station should reflect the area in which it is situated, with name most used for that area being used as the name of the station.

Pineapple Road wins vote to be name of new station

The names for new stops in south Birmingham have been chosen by the public.

www.bbc.co.uk

Pineapple Road wins vote to be name of new station​

Here's a name with a ring to it - a new railway station is to be called Pineapple Road.
It is one of three new stops to be created in south Birmingham under a £61m West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) project.
The name, which reflects the street where the station will be opened, was chosen following a public vote.
Another is to be named Moseley Village, also after a vote, with the third already confirmed as Kings Heath.
WMCA said the Pineapple Road supporters thought the title was "memorable and better explained where the station is located".
There were 5,855 people who voted on names for the Stirchley-based station, with 48% backing Pineapple Road, 30% Stirchley and 22% Hazelwell.
WMCA said of the 5,944 responses over the Moseley station, 55% were in favour of calling it Moseley Village, with 45% backing the shorter "Moseley".
The WMCA said it was providing £36m for the construction of the stations on the Camp Hill Line, with an additional £20m coming from the Department for Transport (DfT), and the remaining £5m from Birmingham City Council.
Since 1941 the line has only been used by freight and through-services.

The mayor of the West Midlands, Andy Street, said: "It's brilliant to see that the naming of these stations has ignited such public interest."
Ian Ward, WMCA portfolio holder for transport and leader of Birmingham City Council, said: "People have long campaigned to get these stations rebuilt and reopened to passenger services so I am not surprised so many came forward to help us decide what to call them."

 

[Mordac]

New Street station isn't in New Street either.

 

[SynthD]

Ignited public interest? Someone has named it Hazelwell on Google maps already.

 

[JohnRegular]

New Street station isn't in New Street either.

True enough, but its full title is Birmingham New Street, with the Birmingham part probably being more useful information to the casual traveller. I don't know about the local trains, but longer distance ones don't tend to omit that information.

 

[LLivery]

New Street station isn't in New Street either.

Likewise Fenchurch Street.


People seem to say Stirchley would be confusing because Bournville is actually closer to Stirchley High Street. I'd agree with that. But I always think it's a mistake not to put the area location into a name. Like 'Wood Street', 'University' and 'High Street', Pineapple Road could be anywhere. However, Pineapple Road seems so unique that it may not be an issue.

 

[Gloster]

There appears to be only one other Pineapple Road in the UK and that is in Amersham. But I bet someone will make the mistake one day.

 

[duncanp]

True enough, but its full title is Birmingham New Street, with the Birmingham part probably being more useful information to the casual traveller. I don't know about the local trains, but longer distance ones don't tend to omit that information.

The fact that the station has Birmingham in its' name tells people that it is near New Street in Birmingham.

You could just as well add the suffixes Navigation Street, Stephenson Street or Smallbrook Queensway to the station name.

But if you just called the station New Street, Stephenson Street, Smallbrook Queensway or Navigation Street, it wouldn't be very helpful to people who weren't familiar with the centre of Birmingham.

The tram stop serving the station is called Grand Central (for New Street station) which tells people where to get off if they want to catch a train. If you just called it Grand Central, then people could quite easily miss the stop and travel (from later this year) on to Edgbaston Village.

....which raises the question of how many people are going to travel on the tram to Edgbaston expecting to find the cricket ground.

Most people from outside Birmingham would associate Edgbaston as being the location of the cricket ground, without realising that it is also a suburb that covers quite a large area.

A station name should really tell people at least roughly where the station is located.

 

[Shrewbly]

the Southern end of Pineapple Road is in Stirchley, with the Northern end being in Kings Heath rather than Stirchley

And that's the problem! Pineapple Road is right on the edge of both, and of course the original station was called Hazelwell. I believe the new station will be a few hundred yards away from the original Hazelwell, so it's also not really in the area known as Hazelwell any more.

The Kings Heath name is already taken, so probably Pineapple Road is as good a name as any.

 

[AlterEgo]

Pineapple Road is a great name. Love it.

 

[Mojo]

Unbelievably ridiculous name. There are a lot of stations out there with really stupid names, but this one really takes the michael.

 

[Ken H]

The fact that the station has Birmingham in its' name tells people that it is near New Street in Birmingham.

You could just as well add the suffixes Navigation Street, Stephenson Street or Smallbrook Queensway to the station name.

But if you just called the station New Street, Stephenson Street, Smallbrook Queensway or Navigation Street, it wouldn't be very helpful to people who weren't familiar with the centre of Birmingham.

The tram stop serving the station is called Grand Central (for New Street station) which tells people where to get off if they want to catch a train. If you just called it Grand Central, then people could quite easily miss the stop and travel (from later this year) on to Edgbaston Village.

....which raises the question of how many people are going to travel on the tram to Edgbaston expecting to find the cricket ground.

Most people from outside Birmingham would associate Edgbaston as being the location of the cricket ground, without realising that it is also a suburb that covers quite a large area.

A station name should really tell people at least roughly where the station is located.

but people get off at International thinking its the main Brum station....

 

[The exile]

A station name should really tell people at least roughly where the station is located.

Which, to the majority of the people likely to use it, “Pineapple Road” will. Those who don’t know can make a tiny bit of effort and find out!

 

[Watershed]

Unbelievably ridiculous name. There are a lot of stations out there with really stupid names, but this one really takes the michael.

Agreed. I honestly thought it was some sort of joke when I read the announcement. Kings Heath or Hazelwell would have been much more descriptive and helpful.

 

[Purple Orange]

Boring naysayers. Pineapple Road is a great name and since when has a slight geographical innacuracy hindered rail travellers? Very few. Keep the name, because I want to swan on down to Pineapple Road! A far better name than clumpy old Stirchley.

 

[JohnRegular]

Is it really that ridiculous? I probably wouldn't have chosen it myself, but it's no more ridiculous than e.g. Stapleton Road in Bristol, which is close to one end of the fairly long (longer than Pineapple Rd) road of the same name. Arguably that might be better named Easton, but I don't think that the current name causes any real confusion nor do I think it is ridiculous.

 

[Watershed]

Is it really that ridiculous? I probably wouldn't have chosen it myself, but it's no more ridiculous than e.g. Stapleton Road in Bristol, which is close to one end of the fairly long (longer than Pineapple Rd) road of the same name. Arguably that might be better named Easton, but I don't think that the current name causes any real confusion nor do I think it is ridiculous.

It's one thing if a station has long been called something, it's another giving a brand new (or reopened) station a ridiculous name. And whilst Pineapple Road might be geographically accurate it just sounds like a joke.

"I'd like a ticket to Pineapple Road please"
"Yes, and I'd like a ticket to the moon. Next please..."

 

[AlterEgo]

Is it really that ridiculous? I probably wouldn't have chosen it myself, but it's no more ridiculous than e.g. Stapleton Road in Bristol, which is close to one end of the fairly long (longer than Pineapple Rd) road of the same name. Arguably that might be better named Easton, but I don't think that the current name causes any real confusion nor do I think it is ridiculous.

There are lots of silly station names. Pineapple Road sounds rather jolly to me and there are loads of stations named "X" Road or somesuch.

I honestly couldn't point on a map to most of the 114 stations named "-Road" and I don't think it's going to be confusing at all. Leighton Buzzard station isn't even in Leighton Buzzard, it's in Linslade. Who cares?

 

[adrock1976]

Pineapple Road should have the suffix on the maps and signage "for Outer Circle and 35 bus routes" so as to promote an integrated public transport system.

 

[Mag_seven]

I really don't see the problem here - if the station is actually located on "Pineapple Road" then why not?

 

[centraltrains]

Maybe the locals will start calling the area "Pineapple Village" and the station name will later better reflect the area.

It's certainly more intuitive when someone you're going to visit says they live in "xyzTown" if the station is "xyzTown" or "xyzTown {Suffix}", obviously another station to add to the very long list of exceptions.


Birmingham already has an area-ambiguous road station: Spring Road (although it's interesting that it has the lowest usage out of all the stations on that branch out to Shirley - (Whitlock's end being a bit of an exception not being within an urban area - more of an Park+Ride extension & expansion to serve Dickens Heath)).

I honestly couldn't point on a map to most of the 114 stations named "-Road" and I don't think it's going to be confusing at all. Leighton Buzzard station isn't even in Leighton Buzzard, it's in Linslade. Who cares?

Some "-Road" stations happen to have the road name matching the area name e.g. Roughton Road.




On a related point - can I argue that if "Moseley Village" has to go to the effort of stating to be a "village" by placing it into it's title - it's not a village.

 

[Gloster]

A lot of stations called X Road were actually quite a long way from X: it allowed the company that built the line to get X on its system and in its timetable, but hide the fact that it was nowhere near the town.

 

[The exile]

Pineapple Road should have the suffix on the maps and signage "for Outer Circle and 35 bus routes" so as to promote an integrated public transport system.

Moving bus stops ( if necessary) to be as close as possible to the station entrance and renaming them “Pineapple Road Station” would do a lot more.

 

[Mojo]

Is it really that ridiculous? I probably wouldn't have chosen it myself, but it's no more ridiculous than e.g. Stapleton Road in Bristol, which is close to one end of the fairly long (longer than Pineapple Rd) road of the same name. Arguably that might be better named Easton, but I don't think that the current name causes any real confusion nor do I think it is ridiculous.

The mayor posted a picture of himself with a pineapple, a bottle of pineapple juice, a tin of pineapple slices and also him eating one of those supermarket boxes of pre cut pineapple chunks, so even he thinks the name is a humorous and a bit of a joke.

 

[Djgr]

Elsewhere on the network, everyone thinks Headbolt Lane is a wonderful name...except me!

 

[Sprinter107]

Its not really a tourist area, but a suburban housing area, so the majority of passengers using it will be local, and will be quite aware of where to find Pineapple Road. It was put to the vote, so Pineapple Road must be what people wanted.

 

[2192]

The mayor posted a picture of himself with a pineapple, a bottle of pineapple juice, a tin of pineapple slices and also him eating one of those supermarket boxes of pre cut pineapple chunks, so even he thinks the name is a humorous and a bit of a joke.

Perhaps he just likes pineapples/juice/slices/chunks, and thought these can be charged to expenses.

 

[pdeaves]

Elsewhere on the network, everyone thinks Headbolt Lane is a wonderful name...except me!

Sounds like something used to assemble Frankenstein's monster.

Pineapple Road will do the job fine. It's not like, say, the major tourist draw that is St Ives is going to be renamed 'Bananas' or something, or Bath Spa becoming 'Dorchester Street' or anything like that.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

It was put to the vote, so Pineapple Road must be what people wanted

If they'd been given the option, they'd probably have voted for "Trainy McTrain Station"!

 

[Parallel]

Pineapple Road sounds fine. (And actually quite fun and unique). The Birmingham area already has a fair few ambiguous names such as ‘University’, ‘Spring Road’, ‘Small Heath’ etc so I’m glad they didn’t go for something dull!

 

[Sprinter107]

I think its great that the local people who will be using that station were given a say in what it should be called. After all, its those people who will make most use of it, not some person in an office miles away who may never even step foot on it.