Proposed Tysons Metro station names are still a little dull

Throughout the planning stages of the Silver Line, the four Metro stations in Tysons Corner have been designated by purely descriptive names, like “Tysons Central 123”. Now that construction is well under way, it’s time to consider what those stations should permanently be called.

Metro station names have a way of defining their neighborhoods, so it’s an important question. The Fairfax County Department of Transportation proposes this:

Tysons East would become “Tysons-McLean,” Tysons Central 123 would become “Tysons Boulevard,” Tysons Central 7 would be “Tysons Central,” and Tysons West would be “Tysons Spring Hill.”

As the Washington Post notes, the new proposed names are certainly better than the originals, but they lack a certain catchiness. They’re headed in the right direction, but attaching the word “Tysons” in front of every single one makes them all seem overly contrived. These still seem more like manufactured descriptive terms than the names of real places.

Can we do better? The new names won’t be officially adopted until some time in 2011, so there’s plenty of time to influence the process.

One option might be to simplify Fairfax’s suggestions so they roll off the tongue a little easier: “McLean,” “Tysons Boulevard,” “Tysons Central,” and “Spring Hill Road”. Another option might be to take my suggestions from 2008 and go with “Scott Run,” “Galleria Center,” “Westpark,” and “Spring Hill”.

Or maybe there are even better ideas floating out there. What do you think?

Cross-posted at BeyondDC.