On Thursday the French capital’s transport operator unveiled six new names for Metro stations, tagging the move ‘Ticket to LA’, in honour of the Olympics and Paralympics handover from Paris to Los Angeles, which will host the 2028 Games.
The – temporary – name changes were;
On Line 14, the station Olympiades became Olympiades Los Angeles, while L’Haÿ-les-Roses became Melrose.
Meanwhile, on Line 4 Saint-Michel was renamed Santa Monica, and Line 3’s Malesherbes was transformed into Malibu.
[#TicketToLA] En hommage à la ville de Los Angeles, prochaine ville à accueillir les Jeux en 2028, nous avons renommé certaines de nos stations de métro #ratp 😍 https://t.co/fUaH0kkNKM@metrolosangeles your turn 😉 pic.twitter.com/8huxckRLpg
— Ligne 4 (@Ligne4_RATP) September 12, 2024
On Line 9, Grands Boulevards was Americanised into Hollywood Boulevard, while on Line 2 Belleville became Beverly Hills.
The internal station signs showing the new names were also labelled ‘Los Angeles 2028’.
The name change will last for one day only but RATP added that a photo booth ‘in the typical style of Los Angeles’ has been set up in the Olympiades Los Angeles station, allowing commuters to get a souvenir photo.
The Paris public transport operator likes to have some fun with its station names and often makes temporary name changes to certain stations to honour a particular person or event – the internal signage of the station changes with the addition of a temporary label, while on the on-street signage remains the name, and the stations also keep their original names in online maps and transport apps, in order to avoid confusing travellers.
Recent name changes include George V becoming the Elizabeth II station in honour of the late British Queen and a celebrating of the 2018 football World Cup victory that saw numerous stations renamed after players plus the rebaptising of Avron as Nous Avron Gagné (we won).
Earlier this year an Olympics themed April Fools saw renamed stations including Alexandre Dumarathon, Surferino and Natation.
This time, however, it was reciprocated and the Los Angeles public transport system also changed several station names to give them a Parisian theme.
Downtown Santa Monica became Saint-Germain-des-Prés, Chatsworth was renamed Champs-Elysées, Watts Tower became Eiffel Tower, Mariachi Plaza was renamed Macaron Plaza (that’s the pastry, not the French president) while Monrovia was rechristened Montmartre.
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