Rail Champions, a grassroots campaign

organized by rail education and advocacy group GoRail

, is collecting signatures on a

petition

urging the Unicode Consortium to approve and adopt a new emoji to represent a modern freight train. The Unicode Standard governs the emojis available on digital devices and platforms worldwide.

“Our keyboards are stuck in the 1800s,” petition organizers said in their appeal. “The current train emoji depicts a steam locomotive – a symbol of rail’s early history and heritage. While iconic, it does not represent the modern freight trains that move goods, support industries and connect communities every day.”

The Unicode Consortium is a nonprofit organization that approves and develops new emojis, then ensures they can be used across all devices. Submissions are open to all individuals and organizations; a proposal must document its appeal on several grounds, including visual distinction, that it can be used with other emoji to convey other concepts, and it would have a high usage level.

The full proposal can be read

here

.

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