TfL is really proud of its new device: a stick

The future is here

Watch out London, Transport for London has invented a revolutionary new device in the fight against Tube delays – a stick with a hoop on the end.

The government body proudly showed it off on Twitter, posting a picture of an employee holding the rod, which is a nice orange colour for visibility and has a plastic hook suitable for picking up a multiplicity of objects. You name it, TfL will scoop it.

I really hope this is only the first in a series of new tools TfL will be showing off, with the coming weeks expected to see an elaborate Rube Goldberg machine that lets you purchase a ticket using a slide, candle, bowler hat and Slinky and an app that displays the length of train delays in poop emoji.

The device amused Twitter, where one user wrote "what a time to be alive" as another added: "it's revolutionary, who'd have thought an extended litter picker would've taken until now to be invented".