“Trainy McTrainface” – a possible comeback for Boaty McBoatface in Sweden

In 2016 the name Boaty McBoatface won a landslide victory when the British public were invited to provide name suggestions for a polar research ship. Despite the win, the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) instead decided to name the vessel after Sir David Attenborough. Now Boaty has a possible comeback, as its “cousin” Trainy McTrainface was the most common suggestion when the Swedish private rail operator MTR Express invited the public to provide suggestions to be put to a vote.

In May 2017, the newspaper Metro and MTR Express asked Metro’s readers to submit name suggestions for four of MTR Express’ trains. The most frequent proposal by far was “Trainy McTrainface”, a hats off to Boaty McBoatface. The name was the people’s overwhelming choice in an online naming contest organized by the NERC, for a £200 million polar research vessel that attracted global attention last year. However, Science Minister Jo Johnson suggested there were "more suitable" names and the NERC decided to instead name the ship after the world-renowned naturalist and broadcaster, Sir David Attenborough. To partially accommodate the wishes of the public the name Boaty McBoatface was given to a robotic undersea research vessel.

Now Boaty McBoatface has a chance to make a comeback as Trainy McTrainface, one of top eight submitted names that the public can now vote for to name an MTR Express train.

The vote takes place on Metro’s website and closes on July 17^th .