WMATA To Consider Shortened Names For Vienna, Dunn Loring Stations

Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority staff will recommend to the system's board today the metro stations in Vienna simply become "Vienna" and "Dunn Loring," removing the remainder of their current names and making them subtitles.

The changes are part of  as metro prepares for a realignment of the blue and yellow lines set for next June.

The new naming policy, which will take effect on the June 2012 map, is meant to streamline the new map, using "primary" and "second" names for station names that have become longer, more complex and hyphenated in past years.

The new policy, among other things, requires stations to use only up to 19 characters; 13 for transfer stations. Subtitles count toward overall length. Staff recommended both Vienna station names -- "Vienna/Fairfax-GMU" and "Dunn Loring-Merrifield" -- be altered to Vienna (with the subtitle Fairfax-GMU) and Dunn Lorgin (with the subtitle Merrifield).

Ten other stations have subtitles on the table, but six stations face a name change. Read about the board's full recommendations and other map changes in this article on Greater Greater Washington, which also features a survey of the names for metro feedback.