Trivia: Stations named after countries.

[steamybrian]

If you include tramways/light rail-

Lebanon Road on Croydon Tramlink

 

[superalbs]

I remember visiting that station. It is a very odd name. I have never understood why they decided to name some random suburban station "Belarus"! The area is not even called "Belarus"! It is just a minor small suburban station served by Elektrichka trains. There is nothing significant there. Does anyone know the story behind it? Why did they decide to name some random station in Belarus as "Belarus"?

I was just as troubled when I paid my visit. I will ask a local, please hold!

 

[oldman]

As I said before:

In the interwar period it was the first station on the Belarusian (Soviet) side of the then border with Poland. It was renamed in 1926, presumably as a patriotic gesture.

 

[Caboose Class]

A few more here (some repeats)

Buenos Aires metro – Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela
Santiago de Chile metro – Brasil, Ecuador
Mexico City metro – Jamaica
Panama City metro – Via Argentina

Found another one. A metro station on the Gold Line in Doha called Al Sudan.

 

[Cloud Strife]

In eastern Poland there is Ruskie Piaski (Russian Sands) station. BTW, "Ruski" is an old Polish word meaning "Russian", still used as a derogatory term.

No, not quite. Ruskie in this context comes from Rus', i.e. Ruthenia. Ruski isn't the same as Ruskie, as Ruskie is an adjective (the Ruthenian Sands) whereas Ruski is a derogative name for Russians, as you say.

The question is why Ruskie Piaski is called that when the village dates from the 19th century.

 

[oldman]

The question is why Ruskie Piaski is called that when the village dates from the 19th century.

It apparently dates from the 15th century. The area was part of the Ruthenian Województwo of the Kingdom of Poland, so the name would distinguish it from the many other Piaski in Poland.

 

[Adlington]

Ruski isn't the same as Ruskie, as Ruskie is an adjective (the Ruthenian Sands) whereas Ruski is a derogative name for Russians, as you say.

Ok, diverting into linguistics.... "Ruski" is either a noun or an adjective. It's the same adjective as "Ruskie" except that the former is the singular masculine form, whereas the latter is plural.

 

[StephenHunter]

Ruskie is the term for ethnic Russians, Rossiyane for Russian citizens.

 

[oldman]

Ruskie is the term for ethnic Russians, Rossiyane for Russian citizens.

In Russian not Polish.

But none of this is relevant to the name of Ruskie Piask, which does not mean Russian Sands.

 

[Gerald Fiennes]

It keeps getting better ! And "Holland" has been mentioned in the thread -- posts #20, #36 -- Being a pedant, I'm chary of this one: strictly, the proper name of the country concerned, being the Netherlands: Holland properly, just one small coastal segment thereof; but I see that there is a Holland in New York State, and another in Michigan.

Not pedantic at all, if prompted many Dutch people will point out that their country is actually the 'The Netherlands' and metaphorically roll their eyes at those who persist in using the H word. Just as the capital of the country, as many pub quizzers know to their cost, is not 'Amsterdam'.

So Den Haag HS is not valid, in my submission, the station being named after the company that built it which in turn was named after ... the Province not a country. Unless we go back to 1432 when 'Holland' was a more or less independent county that was seized by the Burgundians Dukes and incorporated into one of the forerunners of the Netherlands. As someone said up front, names are often very political...

 

[Cricketer8for9]

The capital IS Amsterdam, it’s the seat of Government which is Den Haag.

 

[DanielB]

For The Netherlands that's correct indeed, but when the question would be what's the capital of Holland this indeed isn't Amsterdam (but either The Hague for South Holland of Haarlem for North Holland).

More named after "Holland" than The Hague HS by the way is "Hollandsche Rading" station, which in old Dutch means something like border of Holland.
That actually also pinpoints the stations location quite well as this is an unique one: the northbound platform is in North Holland, while the southbound platform is in Utrecht. AFAIK making this the only station with the provincial border right through the middle. (But there are more awkward ones, sometimes even with impact one the name)

 

[zero]

I've come across a few Dutch people who called their country Holland in English. The ones who I was able to ask why said because it's faster to say and because they had the impression that English speakers thought Holland was the name of the country (even though in my experience it's only a minority of English speakers who genuinely think this)

 

[DanielB]

It will depend on who you asked, but I'm pretty sure there could well be a significant group of Dutch who actually don't know the translation of their country in to English is The Netherlands. (And to me it doesn't matter that much, as I actually am a "Hollander": born and grown up in South-Holland)

 

[Whisky Papa]

There is Lille Europe if you consider Europe being a group of countries.

There is also Lille Flandres of course - if you consider Flanders to be a potential country in waiting...

 

[duesselmartin]

How many English people call their country England or Great Britain?
It excludes Northern Ireland.

 

[popeter45]

not after a country but Waterloo station and Waterloo in Belgium

 

[61653 HTAFC]

Sparta tram stop in Prague, named for the football team rather than the ancient Greek city-state.

How many English people call their country England or Great Britain?
It excludes Northern Ireland.

We're always arguing on here about what a "county" is... even "country" is open to a degree of interpretation!

 

[Calthrop]

How many English people call their country England or Great Britain?
It excludes Northern Ireland.

We're always arguing on here about what a "county" is... even "country" is open to a degree of interpretation!

And sometimes, ideology gets into the mix. A one-time work colleague of mine, held some extreme right-wing views; including a very great pride in his being English -- all and any other people(s) were in his eyes, very much "lesser breeds". I recall him once getting rather cross because "somebody had tried to tell him that England wasn't an island". I responded that England is indeed not an island: it is part of the island of Great Britain, which it shares with Scotland and Wales. He still wasn't very happy about that ...

 

[61653 HTAFC]

not after a country but Waterloo station and Waterloo in Belgium

Waterloo stations (London and Merseyside)

 

[D6130]

Line A of the Roma Metro system has a station called 'Spagna' - Italian for Spain - named after Piazza di Spagna, famous for the 'Spanish Steps'.
Line B of the same system has a station called 'Libia' - the Italian spelling for their former colony of Libya.

Line 1 of the Milano Metro system has a station called 'Uruguay'.

 

[Western Sunset]

Vatican city?

 

[D6130]

Vatican city?

In theory....possibly. However the Vatican City station - at the end of the less than 1 km long branch line from Roma San Pietro - is a private station with no publicly-advertised passenger service. It has, however, been visited by at least one railtour in the last 10-15 years.

 

[James James]

In theory....possibly. However the Vatican City station - at the end of the less than 1 km long branch line from Roma San Pietro - is a private station with no publicly-advertised passenger service. It has, however, been visited by at least one railtour in the last 10-15 years.

There is regular service from Vatican City, every Saturday in fact - although from what I can tell the only way to get on it is with a special museum ticket.

Vatican Full Day Tour with Pontifical Villas by Vatican train

Vatican Full Day Tour with Pontifical Villas by Vatican train. Book online the museums of Vatican and Rome and skip the line at the entrance.

www.rome-museum.com

Separately, I feel obliged to point out that in Polish, "ruski" is a valid way to refer to the russian language, and is also valid as an adjective to describe anything russian (in addition to of course the dismissive usage as described above when referring to a Russian person):

ruski - definicja, synonimy, przykłady użycia

ruski - definicja, synonimy, przykłady użycia

sjp.pwn.pl

 

[D6130]

There is regular service from Vatican City, every Saturday in fact - although from what I can tell the only way to get on it is with a special museum ticket.

This is a very welcome initiative which started this Summer and will be very popular with Italian and foreign 'track-bashers'. However it is a special one-day-per week tourist service requiring advance booking and local city transport tickets are not valid.

 

[Whisky Papa]

Sparta tram stop in Prague, named for the football team rather than the ancient Greek city-state.

If we are talking tram stops, Prague also offers Italská and Ruská, which like most stops there are named after highways crossing the tram route. The area S of Náměstí Míru has quite a few streets named after countries or capital cities - in fact Bruselská also gives its name to a tram stop.

​

 

[oldman]

Separately, I feel obliged to point out that in Polish, "ruski" is a valid way to refer to the russian language, and is also valid as an adjective to describe anything russian (in addition to of course the dismissive usage as described above when referring to a Russian person)

All the references in your link to PWN for ruski meaning Russian are marked colloquial or pejorative, except in one place for the language, but even there rosyjski is considered 'proper' Polish.

This is the advice from one Russian academic writing for a Polish audience (via Google Translate):

if you do not want to offend Russians, especially those who know Polish and know something about the meaning of certain words, it is better not to say "ruski", even for the best of intentions. On the other hand, if you want to show some contempt, ...

 

[dlj83]

Stalingrad on the Paris Metro

 

[johnnychips]

Stalingrad on the Paris Metro

Stalingrad is/was not a country

 

[SHD]

But interestingly enough, Jaurès, a station next to Stalingrad, was named “Rue d’Allemagne” until August 1, 1914. It was renamed on the following day of Jean Jaurès’ assassination and just two days before Germany declared war to France.

Berlin on then Line B of the Nord-Sud (today’s Line 13) was closed on August 2, 1914 and when it reopened in December of the same year, its name was changed to Liège…

Stalingrad obviously had a different name before 1946 (Rue d’Aubervilliers for the station on Line 2, Boulevard de la Villette for the station on Line 5 - the stations were “merged” in 1942 under the name Aubervilliers-Villette).

Someome mentioned Anatole France upthread - not really named after the country, but after a famous French writer.