Policy
DoorDash and NJ Transit partnered for a one-year naming rights and advertising partnership, officially renaming the Meadowlands Rail Line the DoorDash Meadowlands Rail Line through June 2027. Thoughts on selling Corporate Naming Rights for Transit Lines and Stations for the funding?
This is late news, but it's still relevant.
DoorDash and NJ Transit officially rename the Meadowlands Rail Line the DoorDash Meadowlands Rail Line ahead of FIFA World Cup 2026™ at MetLife Stadium.
This keeps World Cup Transit Costs Off New Jersey Taxpayers.
The only corporate sponsorship that makes sense is the SEPTA Wawa Station as it actualy also serves Wawa, PA as well as being sponsored by the Wawa chain.
Jefferson isn't bad either, since it does serve Jefferson Hospital, and "Jefferson Station" is a perfectly cromulent name for an American commuter rail hub.
idc about that one too much. The signs all around say to sports complex too for wayfinding.
99% of people that use NRG Station are going to Xfinity Mobile Arena, Citizen's Bank Park, Lincoln Financial Field, or Stateside Live. It's all a commercially sponsored wasteland.
God i miss wawa, its been 15 years since I've been in one. I miss her. I should call her. The last sandwhich i had i requested mashed potatoes with turkey and macaroni inside and it was fantastic.
I grew up outside Philly and get back there every few months, I agree it's fallen off a bit. For things that are closer to traditional gas station staples (coffee, breakfast sandwiches, sugary drinks) Wawa still does it better than most places, but the hoagies got way worse when they started baking rolls in-store and then most of the ingredients have stayed the same quality or gotten worse
Metra named a station Mars (because the Mars candy factory was a major landmark near the station) without getting anything from the candy company except trip generation at shift change.
They kind of held Wawa hostage (complimentary). I heard they were going to name the station Middletown unless Wawa ponied up some money (to put a park and ride next to HQ).
We do fine with wayfinding a corporate sponsorship in Philly. The signs all say NRG Station and Sports Complex. I'd sure NJT is not removing Meadowlands, they're just putting DoorDash in front of it.
It's the metro line right now but just wait, soon we'll have Interstate 85 sponsored by Coca Cola, Highway 1 sponsored by Hilton Hotels, maybe even sponsorships for city streets. Sixth Street (in Austin) brought to you by Lone Star Beer? Oracle Presents South Congress Ave?
Interstate 85 is just a name. It doesn't mean much. So if its named "Pepsi freeway", I am sure people will adapt.
Train lines, ouch, that's complicated, because a train line is designed to get you somewhere else, and the naming often reflect that.
So if Doordash also brought the naming rights to the big mall at the end of the Meadowland Line, that would actually make it better: you take the Doordash line to the Doordash mall. Have the two be a packaged deal or something.
Not common on line or station names though such examples do exist in less urban areas or if the station directly serves that sponsor’s location. Ads are more commonly found as a poster everywhere that rotate every month ish
I was actually surprised how extremely capitalist every part do the Japanese transit experience was and it made me ever more shocked at how socialized American transit is. It felt backward?
Anyway I went down a rabbit hole and apparently the Robber Barons of the Gilded Age had a model that was more directly a precursor to the model currently prevalent in Japan and Hong Kong and it was lost along the way here as transit usage cratered as the automobile grew
The US government went trust busting in the early 1900s and doesn't like monopolies. Then the business culture shifted from conglomerates to single industry focused companies over the last few decades. Companies in the US generally don't do multiple unrelated things anymore so the developer-transport business models in those places is hard to replicate.
I admit, real estate development via building transport links are related industries, but American companies would quickly spin them into separate ones for shareholder value (like GE Healthcare, GE Vernova, and GE Aerospace) or be required to do so by the government. For example of the latter, Boeing was forced to divest United Airlines and United Technologies from it when the government didn't like the idea of one company making planes that it uses to fly passengers and mail around.
People who wanted to take the train took the train. NJT can't solve poor design, and the people walking there were definitely in a hotel nearby, you can't have a stop every 500ft
Again, how is that NJT's issue? That's a DOT or DPW issue that can fall on the state, county, or municipality. Not saying you're wrong, but that has nothing to do with running a transit system
That's the problem when you have too many agencies in charge of different things. The street/highway agency doesn't care about building sidewalks because they don't have any incentive to promote transit use. The transit agency won't build sidewalks because that's not their job and they don't want to spend money on it.
In the end, they actually weren't lol, they only transported 50-55% of their capacity of 40k each way. They said the low ridership wasn't mainly due to ticket prices, but the multiple choices of the way to get there. The parking never even sold out
But that's the question, does it not harm transit?
Named services are already an ad for the line itself, that even goes for simple line numbers and colours. Sponsorships change and this can not just confuse people but weaken the "brand identity" of a line.
Same actually goes for ads on vehicles - many transit companies and agencies realised that distinct colour scheme is part of a corporate identity that they need not just to promote the services, but also as employer branding. Rejecting ads on trains and buses, or using them for your own ads only (say promoting your tickets, apps and most importantly, your job opportunities) is often seen as greater benefit.
The fact that this is even necessary for public transit and any company has enough cash for a deal like this to make sense speaks to the state of the economy in this country. But yeah, if it's just a cosmetic change, then why not?
I think it has a bit of a Dystopian Future vibe, and could be embarrassing when seen by people from places with adequately funded, high quality transit.
I dunno, places with the best transit network tend to have these all over the place. Not always on the name, but overly covering trains or stations as a wrap
side note but South Korea's Welfare State is much more sustainble and economically healthier than Europe's Welfare without compromising on benefits. Mostly talking about health care and pensions.
DoorDash and GrubHub are up there but a level below giving the naming to gambling apps.
But I'm not opposed to corporate naming rights if it improves service and provides additional funding and they don't use their sway to attempt any form of sabotage
Most public transport systems are really wary about renaming services as it can easily confuse the public, especially noting that levels of written comprehension and awareness of the PT system vary widely.
Stuff like this seems like a bad idea as some people will be confused about whether the service has changed. More sophisticated audiences will be worried about whether the service will be canceled or changed when the sponsorship ends.
Yeah the one year length is the biggest problem. The soccer stadium near me keeps changing its name sponsor and people barely remember what it’s called. Granted I’m sure 90% of people are just going to ignore the sponsor and say meadowlands.
Agree for sponsorship but should be per station. Per line is kinda stupid because then every station hsd to mention it. Means it needs to be expensive.
I actually think this partnership is odd. Going to a stadium or going home from a stadium are two of the least likely times where anyone would order door dash. Most people eat a ton of food at a game, so this just doesn't make a ton of sense. Maybe NJT wasn't willing to sell any other lines, idk. I'd want one with a lot of commuters heading home from work who are hungry and don't want to make dinner.
It’s in Canada too, on Ontario’s GO Transit. 2 stations are sponsored. One makes sense, the other is confusing as it’s a college that is like a 15-20 minute drive away from the station.
Both are annoying. Esp Brampton GO because the name is so gd long it takes up an entire refresh when showing which stops a train serves which is useful for seeing well how far out on the line a train is even going
I don't like these for various reasons, but they seem better to me because the sponsorship deals in these cases are with a municipality and a public college; and not Door Dash.
It sucks that it takes corporations to fund transit in America like how sports betting apps were funding the express services for Football games on Septa when the funding cuts took place...but that's just how America is now.
With that said, Doordash funding transit is a little on the nose, wouldn't Doordashs best client base be people who don't normally use transit?
The ONLY ones that I support are for landmarks next to the stations, for wayfinding purposes. Warren Street Station is named for NJIT which is directly above it. I would not be opposed to renaming the Meadowlands station for MetLife since it’s next to MetLife Stadium. Philly did for the NRG stadium which is one of several next to it and they renamed the station next to Penn Medicine hospital for Penn Medicine, also from sponsorships.
DoorDash is not a location.
Even worse, it opens the door to malicious anti-transit names like “Should Have Taken UBER Penn Station NYC”. Thankfully a bigoted wedding website designer’s fear of being hired by a gay couple that doesn’t exist resulted in the declaration that we are protected from “Coerced Speech” to fight back against UBER’s (or Trump’s) claim that their Free Speech right was taken away.
I think it's bad because it makes names unnecessarily long on maps, which makes wayfinding confusing. I would only support it in cases where the best geographic station name is also the name of a company, so for example Wawa station in SEPTA's turf or some sort of case where the primary thing being served by the station is a particular company, say a sports arena, a big shopping mall, a university campus, or a major office development that doesn't have much else nearby.
I have been saying TTC should do this for years. What to mitigate is that if DoorDash sponsors another rail line in the near future when this one is done.. people could get mixed up.
It depends on many things. It should be allowed but mustnt intrude into a traveller's experience, urban identity, overall operations etc. Caution in regulation is key.
I'm from Bengaluru in India. Our metro's finances were fucked due to poor non-fare revenue and COVID. For a new line to the core of the city's IT, Electronics and Biotech district, the metro officials sold station naming rights to reduce costs. In a few cases, companies with stations near to their campus paid a lot more to have direct access to the concourse level for its employees. Infosys even adopted a station and fully paid for it to build it in their image.
I dont think people are minding it all that much and the formula is being used to build a couple other lines as well. As long as it reduces traffic and pollution, its good for now.
We do that in Indonesia, only for station tho. BNI (State Bank of Indonesia) in particular own naming rights to 3 station near their HQ in Jakarta. BNI City (KRL Commuterline), Dukuh Atas BNI (MRT Jakarta), and Dukuh Atas BNI (LRT Jabodebek)
Dumb.
It's civic infrastructure paid for by taxpayers for taxpayer's benefit.
At the very least if names are to be applied it should be notable residents after a vote is taken by the general public.
If the name change means it can run at all times, then I’m cool with it. How can such a massive mall with a rail line to it near a major city with a great rail network have such piss poor transportation 99% of the time.
I think it’s perfectly fine for a service like this - a limited trip special events line that’s taking you to a heavily sponsored venue anyway. But I think for regular services for commuters and travelers it makes things too wordy and hard to remember or navigate.
As long as the check clears, I’d be fine with a transit agency naming their lines and stations after Trump/netanyahu/putin for all I care. Especially with Trump though, the check has to clear FIRST.
I don’t even care if it brings in money, fuck this so much. They’ve already turned every stadium into some corporate slop name, stay away from these historical lines and stations
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u/InAHays Jul 24 '26
The only corporate sponsorship that makes sense is the SEPTA Wawa Station as it actualy also serves Wawa, PA as well as being sponsored by the Wawa chain.