If you are a commuter with South West Trains (SWT) or Southern and have had reason to complain about them over the past year, you are in good company.
@SouthernRailUK 17:29 at Sutton seriously a train delayed due to train crew delayed? Why does that impact awaiting passengers! 😡
— Superfly (@MalihaHussain) May 15, 2015
Rail organisation CommuteLondon has released new statistics showing an increase in the number of angry tweets rail passengers have sent in the last 12 months to train companies.
Southern which serves stations in Wimbledon, Carshalton and Sutton and SWT, which serves stations in Chessington, Surbiton, New Malden and Kingston, took 3rd and 4th position respectively, in the dubious honour of the most amount of negative tweets received by rail companies.
Only Abellio Greater Anglia and First Great Western pipped them to take gold and silver medal position in the analysis of 14 rail companies which found nearly half a million negative tweets sent.
Over the period April 2014 to March 2015, Twitter users bombarded Southern with 61,715 piqued tweets, with issues ranging from delays, to heating on trains.
@SouthernRailUK have removed my train from timetable, allegedly to make other trains punctual. Bet it doesn't work & increases overcrowding
— Tom Hosking (@thosking) May 12, 2015
Some of the complaints from disgruntled Southern passengers included one who asked if there was any reason why Southern “can’t activate air con in the furnace carriages”, adding that they were an “absolute hellhole, especially in mega crowded trains.”
Another blasted Southern for delayed trains being “run straight through scheduled stops” so the train “appeared on time at London Bridge” while a third described them as “crap” stating “It’s a tough job they have, fecking up our daily commute!”
I can see why people get annoyed with @SouthernRailUK. Two days in a row that services are showing as delayed.
— Dan (@voyagerd79) May 12, 2015
Over the same period, SWT were barraged with 51,577 tweets from riled Twitter users, ranging from complaints about crime on the railways, to the speed at which trains trundle along at and overcrowding.
SWT passengers were just as infuriated as Southern passengers with one saying “man puts a man on the moon” but SWT “can’t run a train service” accompanied by the hashtag #SouthShitTrains.
Another passenger seemed tired of complaining saying: “So bored of tweeting about @SW_Trains shocking service. Late again. Not surprised.”
A butterfly flaps its wings in Woking and next thing, my on time 7:40 Shepperton @SW_Trains is terminating at Kingston. #butterflyeffect
— Ian Kershaw (@ikershaw) May 19, 2015
CommuteLondon.com director Daren Wood said: “Commuters are increasingly using social media sites like Twitter to publicly express their frustrations about their daily journeys.
“Train operators should be actively monitoring these interactions to improve services and help create a happy commuter experience.
“The more commuters share opinions on daily train services, the more information operators will have make to the necessary improvements.”
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