Meet Sweden's newest train: Trainy McTrainface
Will of the people triumphs as legacy of Boaty McBoatface lives on
A Swedish rail service says it will honour the public's choice and name its new engine Trainy McTrainface.
In an online poll, 49 per cent of Swedes chose the name, a reference to last year's "Boaty McBoatface" story, putting it lightyears ahead of runners-up Hakan, Poseidon and Miriam.
Trainy, who joins a fleet of newly-christened trains which includes Estelle, Glenn and Ingvar, will run between between Stockholm and Gothenburg starting this autumn.
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In April 2016, the Natural Environment Research Council learned the perils of open-ended polling when they asked Brits to suggest names for their new research vessel. The runaway favourite: Boaty McBoatface.
To the outrage of the voting public, the name was rejected by the council in favour of the eminently more sensible runner up, the RSS David Attenborough.
But while the will of the people may have been thwarted by the elites in that case, in egalitarian Sweden the democratic choice has been upheld.
Rail operator MTR Express has pledged to honour the result and hoped it would "be received with joy by many, not only in Sweden".
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Twitter users were delighted that Boaty's legacy lives on:
For some, it was a moment of catharsis after the lingering disappointment of the Boaty incident:
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