Ore, what's in a name?

[whole diary]

[Chris from Nailsea]

From the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page):

Plans to rename Ore railway station to avoid confusion

A proposal has been made to alter the name of a railway station in Sussex to stop confusion among travellers. Plans have been put forward by Hastings Borough Council for Ore station to be renamed East Hastings.

Train firms have been asked to consider the change because the council says it will benefit rail users and prevent mix ups because Ore station is not in Ore.

Network Rail said it was a "major undertaking" and it needed the support of the majority of the community.

A council report said: "Ore station is technically not in Ore at all, and this can cause confusion to passengers. With Ore station becoming more important, as it returns to having three trains an hour, it is felt that the opportunity should be taken to approach the train operating companies and suggest that the station be renamed."

In a statement, Network Rail said: "We would be happy to consider any proposal to change a station name in cooperation with the relevant train operator. However, it is important that any proposal has the support of the majority of people in the community, not only in terms of wanting the name changed but what it should be changed to."

[eightf48544]

"major undertaking"?

If Networkrail was really canny they could pay for the renaming by selling of the old Ore namepaltes.

Also if any database of station names can't be easily  changed with a single tranaction then the systems analyst that design the programme should be made to do the overtime free of charge.

[JayMac]

This story got me thinking.....which station in FGW^▸ (First Great Western) land has had the most recent name change? I don't know, I ask because I have a capacity for useless facts and this is one missing from my UFSU*

*Usless Fact Storage Unit. i.e. Me noggin.

[devon_metro]

Probably "St Keyne Wishing Well Halt" on the Looe branch line.

[Electric train]

Things like Bodmin, Tiverton, Didcot simple names only to be called Parkway

And how about this one (click on the attached)

[devon_metro]

Things like Bodmin, Tiverton, Didcot simple names only to be called Parkway

And how about this one (click on the attached)

I believe Tiverton Parkway has always been called that, the old station, south of the current site was closed (Tiverton Junction) and Tiverton Parkway replaced it as it was much nearer to the M5

[JayMac]

An internet trawl reveals that Didcot had 'Parkway' added in 1985, and St Keyne Wishing Well and Coombe Junction had 'Halt' re-added in 2008.

What about more substantive name changes (i.e. a complete name change, not merely the addition of a suffix)?

[FarWestJohn]

The Dell station in Falmouth was re-named Falmouth Town a few years ago.

[jakemonkfish]

Highbridge & Burnham has been through a few variations over the years

[grahame]

"major undertaking"?

Special case - the new name is longer and the brackets aren't strong enough for a bigger sign 

More seriously, What happens to the TLC^▸ (three letter code, or tender loving care, depending on context ) (three letter code) when a station name changes? Perhaps that's why the others mentioned here have been quite easy, but a code change from ORE to EHG (or whatever) would be a problem.  It would certainly be a nuisance when looking at all the old stats files we have here, for example.

[eightf48544]

A bit of normalisation in the database and you add a table of old and new codes which is looked up in appropriate circumstances. i.e when the code can't be found in the current table. the old new table is consulted and if it's not in there then it's a typo.

[paul7575]

Extend the name, leave the code - eg Mottisfont and Dunbridge [DBG]

Paul