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If Boaty McBoatface taught us one thing, it’s that the public do not take a naming ceremony particularly seriously.
Cue the newly named leaf-removal train: Ctrl Alt Deleaf.
Named after a public vote, Network Rail said the train was part of its fleet of “leaf-busters”, which blast mulch off rails.
Great Britain’s railway network stretches for 20,000 miles and has to cope with about 500bn leaves each year.
Ctrl Alt Deleaf – a pun on the computer keyboard command Control-Alt-Delete – will be deployed next week from a depot at Effingham Junction, Surrey.
Other shortlisted entries for the train’s name were Leaf-Fall Weapon, Pulp Friction and The Autumn Avenger.
Leaves cause significant disruption every autumn when they stick to damp rails and become compressed by train wheels, Network Rail said. This creates a thick, slippery layer similar to black ice on roads, which can reduce trains’ grip and result in signallers being unable to detect when a train has entered a new section of track.
Speed restrictions are imposed in an attempt to reduce accidents, such as the crash between two trains outside a tunnel near Salisbury, Wiltshire, in October 2021, which left 13 passengers and one driver requiring hospital treatment.
Lisa Angus, Network Rail’s industry weather response director, said: “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.
“The scale of the operation involved in keeping passengers moving through the autumn is monumental: Ctrl Alt Deleaf and our fleet of leaf-busters trains will cover over a million miles, as well as deploying fast-reaction teams and using more technology than ever before.
“Our teams will be working non-stop to try and keep the tracks leaf-free this autumn so that passenger and freight services can continue running safely and reliably.”
In Scotland, there is a tradition of giving gritting lorries names suggested by the public. Some of these are proudly Scottish: Chilly Connolly, Robert Brrrns and Lew-ice Capaldi. Others go further afield for wordplay, giving us Gritney Spears, Lord Coldemort, For Your Ice Only and Grit Expectations.
In 2016, the Natural Environment Research Council opened a poll for the naming of a £200m polar research ship, which was won by RRS Boaty McBoatface.
The name choice was overruled and the ship was ultimately called the RRS Sir David Attenborough.
