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'In Sweden We Listen to the People': Trainy McTrainface Officially Inaugurated

CC0 / / Sweden train
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Swedish transport company MTR Express committed to following the will of the people and officially named their new Stockholm-Gothenburg express train ‘Trainy McTrainface.’

The train's name, the result of an online poll, beat alternatives such as Miriam, Poseidon and Håkan, and was inspired by RSS Boaty McBoatface, last year's internet sensation. When the UK's National Environment Research Council (NERC) opened up the naming of its polar research ship to the public in March 2016, "Boaty McBoatface" quickly became the favorite, surpassing other proposed names by tens of thousands of votes.

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Despite the clear win, Boaty McBoatface wasn't chosen as the ship's official name, with Science Minister Jo Johnson explaining that it didn't "fit the mission and capture the spirit of scientific endeavor." Needless to say, the final decision to name the vessel after famous naturalist Sir David Attenborough disappointed "Boaty's" supporters. Twitter users even predicted riots saying that "we had protests against austerity, student debt and bedroom tax, but rejecting Boaty McBoatface would be the final straw."

However, when earlier this year MTR Express launched a similar poll and Swedes took up the initiative, overwhelmingly voting to name the train "Trainy McTrainface," the company decided to actually stick with the people's choice.

"I can guarantee with my life that the train will be called Trainy McTrainface," said MTR marketing chief Peter Nasfi. "There was a bit of international attention on the vote, and I imagine that some people were quite delighted to get some revenge for the ‘Boaty McBoatface' thing."

There were still doubts that the promise would be kept, but this Tuesday, the rail company held its naming ceremony and Trainy McTrainface was officially inaugurated.

"A recurring comment in the international media is that ‘in Sweden we listen to the people and take their opinions seriously,'" MTR Express Commercial Director Peder Osterkamp said at the inauguration. "Some bloggers have written they can now move to Sweden, ‘where there is still some democracy left.'"

The train will be commuting between the Swedish capital Stockholm and the country's second-largest city, Gothenburg.

The Boaty McBoatface story inspired namers-of-things around the world, some of which were taken more seriously than others: in May 2016, Google released a natural language parser named Parsey McParseface; four months later, the US rejected Stealthy McStealthface as the proposed name for its new stealth bomber, the B-21, which was ultimately named "Raider."

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