A cheeky Twitter account that allows angry commuters to vent their frustration at rail company South West Trains has gained a following of more than 4,000.
@SouthWestPains was set up three years ago when a group of friends had begun commuting into the city and started sharing pictures and stories about their journeys into work from their personal twitter accounts.
A (non-exhaustive) list of things more reliable than @SW_Trains: 1. Printers 2. Tony Blair 3. The Daily Mail
— South West Pains (@SouthWestPains) January 13, 2016
One of the page’s founders, a 23-year-old who grew up in Teddington and now lives in Battersea, said: "After making fun of South West Trains, the constant delays and shambolic service from our normal accounts for a while we thought of this handle so we could all vent in one place.
Why do these ticket inspectors look like they're about to drop the hottest rap album of 2015 pic.twitter.com/U3cUK9DAt9
— South West Pains (@SouthWestPains) October 8, 2015
"Within the first week we got about 500 followers, 1,000 after a few months and then it grew from there. We obviously tapped into the shared frustration of thousands of commuters."
NEW: TRAINING SESSIONS FOR THOSE COMMUTING FROM CLAPHAM JUNCTION/EARLSFIELD pic.twitter.com/AxUmD3UvcV
— South West Pains (@SouthWestPains) November 30, 2015
"We get some really funny stuff sent in; it's a mixture of photos, horror stories and jokes."
The account was suspended after its first three weeks when the rail company reported it to Twitter.
Trying to get to Waterloo this morning like pic.twitter.com/onU8NA8pAl
— South West Pains (@SouthWestPains) October 7, 2015
The co-founder, who formed the page with a 23-year-old woman from Hampton and wishes to remain anonymous, said: "We already had a decent number of followers, about 600, and we were tweeting at South West Trains, so if someone would tweet a problem we would respond as if we were them.
"Obviously they weren’t happy with this and got us banned.
"We had to go back through Twitter and we are not allowed to directly tweet South West Trains any more."
Due to the disruption this morning, we suggest using alternative methods of transport. pic.twitter.com/iFexduSwNq
— South West Pains (@SouthWestPains) July 21, 2015
A spokesman for South West Trains, which inadvertently encouraged commuters to laugh at its own expense earlier this month when it asked Twitter users for their favourite memories of 2016, would not comment on the @SouthWestPains handle, but said its own media account is one of the most used rail social media accounts in the UK.
FROM JANUARY 7: South West Trains just made a very brave move
When people moan about the strike.... pic.twitter.com/f1q1nbg9wa
— South West Pains (@SouthWestPains) July 8, 2015
The spokesman said: "We now have 235,000 followers and we are happy to keep our customers updated and help with any queries they have around their travel."
When you hoped you might get home on time for once pic.twitter.com/5QvuJZyqwG
— South West Pains (@SouthWestPains) July 16, 2015
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