As reported by Metro, the British public has voted to name the savior of their railways: Ctrl Alt Deleaf, the leaf cleaning train. After Boaty McBoatface was renamed the RSS Sir David Attenborough back in 2018 in a historic moment of “stop having fun, guys,” it’s nice to see this vote go with the people’s choice. Now Ctrl Alt Deleaf will be bravely leading the charge to keep the UK’s railways clear of leaves this fall.
Among the other equally silly names in the running were “Leaf-Fall Weapon,” “Pulp Friction,” and the “Autumn Avenger.” Despite that competition, “Ctrl Alt Deleaf” won with a commanding 50% of the vote.
The finalist names that went up for a public vote were selected from a pool of over a thousand by railway historian and British TV host Tim Dunn, along with the UK’s rail minister Lord Hendy and Lisa Angus, Network Rail’s Weather Response Director.
In a press release announcing the winning name for the latest leaf cleaning train, Angus commented, “Our leaf-busting trains are the unsung heroes of the British autumn travelling the length and breadth of the country to keep the railway running.”
Ctrl Alt Deleaf is the most accurate name among the finalists, in my humble opinion—this train will be the railways’ Task Manager, deleting those pesky leaves that slow down trains in the fall. That might sound like a little issue, but leaves can be like black ice on train tracks. Ctrl Alt Deleaf is just one of a whole fleet of “leaf buster” trains that spray and coat the tracks to keep them safe.
Plus, unlike the RSS Sir David Attenborough, Ctrl Alt Deleaf is also allowed to keep the name the public voted for. In 2018, the name “Boaty McBoatface” was infamously vetoed after a public vote to name a polar research vessel that, at the time, was “the most technically advanced survey ship ever built.” The ship’s original name was passed down to one of the submarines onboard, though.
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