Link to article on the name change.

The change was indeed due to a marketing study.



I'm against it; I see no good that can come from it. Anyone uninformed enough to think they are going to "Boston" when they fly to MHT is going to be sorely disappointed at the lack of quick, frequent public transportation to Boston and the high cost of the long taxi ride to Boston. And if it does manage to increase passenger volume, that means longer lines and less parking.

I fear the airport will use this change as an excuse to raise prices of services, increase security paranoia, or increase other big city airport flaws. And I fear the airlines will use it as another excuse to jack up ticket prices.

But in general I'm against renaming well-known landmarks for social, political, or marketing reasons. There seems to be a trend toward such renaming: DCA, BWI, and ATL are recent examples, and I still call them National, BWI, and Hartsfield.

http://www.boston.com/business/artic...ons_good_name/


http://boards.boston.com/n/pfx/forum...tag=bc-general

Like Manchester, Worcester may add Boston to its airport name

http://www.boston.com/news/local/mas..._airport_name/

I guess if WAAF can do it, the James D. O'Brien Field at Worcester Regional Airport can do it too. Doubt it will help much. Massport certainly hasn't.

Worcester airport joins the bandwagon with Worcester-Metrowest-Boston Airport. This is what we pay consultants for in Worcester.

That name makes even less sense. At least, it has the word "west" in the name. But if someone from out of the area is thinking of a trip to Boston, are they going to request "Boston" or "Manchester" or "Worcester"?

Likewise, if someone is going to Chicago, are they going to request "Chicago" or "Rockford"? Or if they're going to Orlando, are they going to request "Orlando" or "Sanford"?

Don't worry, soon you'll have the TF Green Providence-Boston-Cape Cod Airport down by you.

All it tells me is that the Worcester Airport commision doesn't know how airport search engines work. They keep saying that including Boston in the name will make Worcester pop up in the search results as if the airport code will be changed to orhbos. Now if ORH could move a little closer to Metrowest, like say to Grafton or Westboro, that may change things, but that ain't gonna happen.

One would think that to have the airport show up in the results, first it would have to have flights in or out.
http://dps1.travelocity.com/dreamMap...p_arp_name=orh

"Hartsfield" is a reference to William B. Hartsfield (former Mayor of Atlanta)... the airport was named in honor of him very shortly after his death in 1971.

At least there are plans to bring the MBTA Commuter Rail to
PVD ...

Maybe BDL could rename itself "Metronorth New York Metrowest Boston Hartford Springfield Airport"

... Connecticut Springfield Western Massachusetts Southeastern New York State Airport"

But you would have to somehow include "Bradley" and "International" in that name somewhere! (Maybe "Bradley" can stay out - don't want to make the name too long. )

I think what keeps people away from Worcester is they don't know how to pronounce it. Maybe they should start by changing the spelling to "Woostah."

Well the MBTA commuter rail already comes to Worcester, although it doesn't get you to the airport, and to think of it, it doesn't even get you to the rehabbed Union Station as it stops about 100 yards up the tracks.

Well that is pretty close but used mosly by people who used to live in "Wista," like my in-laws who now live in Andova. But don't worry the debate will go on forever, I can live with your pronunciation.

(So Duhey2 where did you go to school? WSC is on Chandler St, but Clark/WPI/Assumption/Becker/Anna Maria are all pretty close, and you are right driving down Chandler Street is a mess, people just walk out from between parked cars without looking or stopping all day and all night long and that doesn't count the school busses and potholes and potheads.)

"IF" and when MBTA comes farther south of Providence, it will stop near (1/4 mile away, connected by a walkway) TF Greene (PVD), and also have a new stop built at Wickford Junction.

But, I'll believe it when I see it! I've lived in the area for 6 years, and came to the area for 8 years prior, and they were "talking about it" all that time!

At least now they agreed to begin this expanded service "in a few years"

Hmm. Any time I've seen a train stopped in Worcester station since the refurb, it's been in Union Station itself, not the skanky little Amtrak platform on the other side of I-290. Have things changed again?

(Plus the little platform is connected directly to Union Station anyway, so if your train stops there you can walk through the station and down the stairs to the street.)

From my point of view what really killed ORH as a viable airport was the Fort Point Tunnel. That cut literally half an hour off average travel times from Metrowest to Logan, and so made Logan much more appealing as an airport to fly out of.

Various people keep saying 'it's the lack of a fast road from the Pike to ORH that's the problem' -- but these days I'm not sure that would save ORH either. MHT manages on that score, although of course they have reasonably advanced plans to build a new fast road and it's only two miles from I-293.