The problem with naming the rail line from downtown to Denver International Airport after the University of Colorado is that the A line doesn’t go through a CU campus.

Won’t this be confusing?

Wouldn’t naming the line after, say, DIA make more sense?

Nevertheless, if the Regional Transportation Board votes Tuesday to accept a contract with CU for $5 million for five years, the line that will open next year will be the University of Colorado A line.

We don’t begrudge RTD for offering naming rights for its stations, bus and rail lines and other facilities as a way to generate revenue to avoid cuts in service or fare hikes.

Think Sports Authority Field but for transit vehicles.

It is a smart move — an extension of public-private partnerships and a partial solution to a public agency’s money woes. Transit authorities in cities like Chicago and San Diego have similar naming programs.

Nevertheless, RTD has to be careful about its choices.

Spokesman Scott Reed scoffed at the idea of a Sticky Buds Colfax line, saying the agency wouldn’t accept a business that is operating illegally under federal law, as marijuana sellers are. However, many other names could sound just plain inappropriate, too, or even tacky — the Jack in the Box 16th Street Mall Ride, the Cheetos Civic Center Station.

There’s nothing wrong with such products or the companies that make them, of course, but naming public infrastructure after them is another matter.

The Chicago Transit Authority considers a company’s reputation and financial status before approving naming rights.

A name should also make sense.

CU’s naming right would include advertising on the Flatirons Flyer, which travels between Denver and Boulder on U.S. 36. That is more like it — a CU line that travels to its main campus.

But the A line doesn’t even have a stop at the University of Colorado’s Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora. Its path lies north of the campus, while the station at the medical complex will be on a rail line that mostly follows Interstate 225.

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