Would you rather board the SkyTrain at Granville Station or TD Bank Station? Metro Vancouver mayors are mulling the possibility of selling naming rights at SkyTrain stops to help fund future transportation projects.

Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts says naming revenue could help pay for the much-anticipated but chronically underfunded $1.4-billion Evergreen Line, and criteria could be set out to keep the names "thoughtful and tasteful."

"For instance, you look at Stadium Station. The natural fit would be ‘Rogers Stadium Station,' so something as simple as that," Watts told ctvbc.ca.

"I'm sure there are people who aren't going to like this," Watts said, "but they also don't want to pay higher taxes."

Toronto's Transit Commission signed an advertising contract earlier this month that opened up the possibility of selling off subway station naming rights, and several U.S. cities have pursued similar arrangements.

Philadelphia's transportation authority recently signed a $5-million contract allowing AT&T to rename a single station for five years. In 2009, New York's transit provider sold a single station's naming rights to London-based Barclays bank in a 20-year, $4-million deal.

There's no telling how much or how little companies would bid for a similar deal in Metro Vancouver, however.

Kalle Lasn, editor-in-chief of anti-consumerism magazine Adbusters, fears the psychological effects of letting companies put their stamp on transit stops.

"You'd get corporate names thrown at you every time you pass a station, every few minutes," Lasn said.

"My feeling is that our children, and we ourselves shouldn't be reminded of mega-corporations every time we hop on a train… I hope there's a lot of public outcry about this."

If pursued, naming rights revenue would not replace the two-cents-per-litre gas tax increase proposal approved by the Mayors' Council on Regional Transportation last week.

Watts defended the proposed increase Wednesday, saying it would not be used solely to pay for the Evergreen Line but for the region's entire integrated transportation network that will "benefit everyone in Metro Vancouvuer."

An estimated one-million people are expected to move into the region over the next 20 years, Watts said, which could result in smog and frequent gridlocked traffic if public transportation isn't improved.

"We either become like Los Angeles or we start planning today for the future," she said.

Metro Vancouver mayors will discuss transit station naming rights and other transportation issues at a meeting on July 29.

Have your say: Should SkyTrain station names be sold to the highest bidder?