Northern Rail apologises 73 times a day

Northern Rail apologises 73 times a day, making it the 5th most apologetic rail company in the country according to a new website.

sorryfortheinconvenience.co.uk was created 2 weeks ago and tracks how many times rail networks in the UK say “sorry” on Twitter.

With a total of almost 25,000 this year, Northern Rail apologises far more than most competitors, ranking high in the leaderboards.

However, the top spot goes to Southern Rail with 38,000 “sorrys” this year alone.

The website’s creator, Omid Kashan, told Quays News “I just noticed through looking at Metrolink’s Twitter that they seemed to be apologising a lot. I thought it would be cool to get a handle on the actual numbers and as soon as it went up, people were asking for Northern Rail to go on there, then London operators and so on…”

The website now tracks 18 different transport networks across the UK and has become a hit online, as Omid adds more public transport networks as people ask him.

When asked why he thinks the website had gotten so popular, Omid said “I think its tapped into a certain Britishness, the culture of complaining about things crossed with the abomination that is the UK rail industry. Its a pretty light hearted look at a serious problem.”

@aaron_cassidy Apologies for the inconvenience Aaron, we will pass on your comments

— Northern (@northernassist) December 8, 2016

@CherylHibbert Very sorry about this Cheryl

— Northern (@northernassist) December 8, 2016

#WiganWallgate – The lifts will be out of order from now until further notice #sorry

— Northern (@northernassist) December 8, 2016

A spokesman for Northern said: “Our Twitter account is a vital component of the customer service we offer to our passengers – providing a direct opportunity for all to interact with Northern.

“Where appropriate we will, of course, apologise to customers if the service we offer has fallen short of their, or our, expectations.

“However it must be noted that we receive around 1,000 tweets each day and respond to a significant proportion of those, meaning the 70 tweets mentioned are a very small proportion of the engagement we have with our customers.”

The spokesman added: “We continue to listen to our customers and welcome feedback about all aspects of the Northern network as we strive to provide an excellent experience and level of customer service for all our passengers.”