Milton Keynes teenager wins competition to name high speed train

An 18-year-old girl from Milton Keynes has won a competition to come up with a name for Avanti West Coast's 'Climate Train'.

Kyla Louise Poulton's suggestion of 'Opportunity' was picked by an Avanti West Coast panel from entries all over the country.

Kyla said she took inspiration from Avanti West Coast’s Pride Train, which is named Progress.

“The name was an idea I had after talking to my friends. We knew about the Progress train name, so I wanted to come up with a name that was on a similar line to that so that they were linked in some way.

"I just thought about how I see the future of transport is being changed by climate change and how trains represent an opportunity to provide low emission transport services"

Kyla added: “It's just very cool to have your chosen name on a train because I use them so much.”

The winning name will now be attached to the train, which was adorned with a special wrap for the COP26 Climate Change Conference last year.

It was used to take hundreds of delegates arriving at on Eurostar train from Amsterdam to the conference in Glasgow.

The wrap has slogans including “Our planet means the world to us” and “Ride against climate change”. It was applied with the support of Aura Graphics, train builder Alstom, and rolling stock company Angel Trains who own and invest in the Pendolino fleet.

They have all committed to using the Climate Train to reduce carbon impact on route

There was also a contest to design the emblem on Opportunity’s name plate, which will adorn the Pendolino.

That was was won by 10-year-old Luca Fazakerley from Liverpool, who created the artwork themed on what the planet meant to him.

Kyla and Luca were each presented with their own replica nameplates and the original will be attached to Pendolino (390121) in the coming weeks

Earlier this month Avanti West Coast and Eurostar were recognised with a special honour at the prestigious Golden Whistle Awards for their efforts to showcase rail during COP26 with the Climate Train.

Avanti West Coast, Alstom and Angel Trains have also recently signed an agreement to commit to working collaboratively to use Opportunity as a trial train to continually reduce the carbon impact of the Pendolino fleet and in turn the West Coast Main Line to provide a sustainable, safe, as well as an attractive transport journey for passengers.

Head of Sustainability at Avanti West Coast, Gareth Williams, said: “Kyla couldn’t have picked a more fitting name and Luca’s emblem looks fantastic."

He added: “’Opportunity’ showcases our commitment to climate change and protecting our planet. As the train travels up and down the West Coast Main Line it will provide a constant reminder that we can all do more to reduce our carbon emissions and one simple step could be taking the train, as a low carbon form of transport, to ‘ride against climate change’.”