Passengers enraged by Southern Rail’s inability to run a reliable train service can now take their anger out on a game. The objective? Delay as many trains as possible and pocket the profits from dismaying passengers.
Southern Rail Tycoon, developed by creative agency RamJam, is a browser-based game that challenges frustrated commuters to block guards from boarding trains while simultaneously raking in profits from passengers. If enough guards are successfully blocked, the train is cancelled. If enough trains successfully depart, the player loses the game.
According to the BBC, the Brighton-based team behind the game came up with the idea after having a trip to London ruined by delayed and cancelled trains. When the game ends, players are directed to Southern Rail’s Twitter page and compensation form.
“The 18:03 Southern service to Portsmouth Harbour and Bognor Regis has been cancelled due to a temporary shortage of train crew” has become a common refrain at London Victoria during months of delays. On July 11 the rail operator axed 341 trains a day as part of a revised timetable. Southern currently runs 2,242 services every weekday and the cuts mean 15 per cent of trains are currently not running.
While Southern doesn’t profit from delayed and cancelled services, consumer groups have argued current refund systems are too complex. In December 2015, Which? filed a formal complaint to the railway regulator to try to improve the process. It claimed only a third of people who may be entitled to compensation actually claimed it. Only a handful of rail operators – not including Southern – operate an automatic refund scheme to registered passengers.
Southern has blamed current service disruption on a shortage of train crew and is in open dispute with the RMT union, which has staged several walkouts. The union and Southern’s parent company Govia Thameslink are in dispute over driver-only operated service, which would change the role of train conductors.
The rail operator has said higher than normal levels of staff sickness are partly to blame for the disruption, but the RMT union has denied claims that illnesses are unofficial industrial action. The revised timetable will run until crew levels return to normal.
On Friday Claire Perry, the government’s rail minister, quit shortly after telling MPs that doing so would not help resolve problems on the Southern network. Earlier last week she said the disruption to Southern services felt “like a failure”.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
