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11th Jul 2017

Southern Rail put a work experience kid on Twitter to answer the public’s questions

This could have gone so wrong, but it actually went better than anyone could have expected

Rich Cooper

Southern Rail do not have a good reputation right now.

In fact, if you mention the words ‘Southern Rail’ to a certain sect of commuters, they will simultaneously start vomiting and wildly punching the air in a dual expression of disgust and hate.

Delayed trains, cancellations and overcrowded carriages do not happy travellers make. Southern Rail are often busy on Twitter, fielding angry questions from frustrated commuters, such as the following:

It’s hard to imagine that anyone at either end of this exchange is happy, which is why a few hearts sank when this tweet went out from the Southern Rail account.

Yep, Eddie, a young man on work experience, would be taking over the Twitter for a little while.

This… surely could not go well.

A few people had a feeling it was going to be a rough afternoon for young Eddie.

https://twitter.com/1N4R0551/status/884792026449022978

https://twitter.com/c_r_booth/status/884790505418231808

 

But even at 15 years-old, Eddie is a professional and took it all in his stride.

 

And then the daft questions started coming at Eddie, thick and fast.

 

Credit to Eddie, though. He went ahead and answered them.

 

There was the occasional ‘real’ question…

https://twitter.com/MaxFassbrause/status/884780970670530560

Eddie answered them, but we’re not here to find out if Max could in fact break his journey at East Croydon. He could, incidentally. What a plot twist!

Sometimes it’s hard not to be cynical about these things, and the same thought popped into our head: there is no Eddie, and if there is, he’s not a work experience kid, he’s someone from marketing trying to improve the image of Southern Rail.

Someone else on the replies thought the same thing.

https://twitter.com/SimonSFranklin/status/884782389662289921

But why? Plenty of school kids are out on work experience right now, and there’s no reason why a sharp young man couldn’t give charming answers to politely strange questions.

If it turns out that Eddie is a fabrication and Southern Rail gets embroiled in a fake work experience scandal, we’ll just add it to the List Of Things That Actually Were Too Good To Be True, Sorry Everyone. But for now, we believe in Eddie, as did (most) everyone else on the feed.

https://twitter.com/brownbare/status/884779786849202178

https://twitter.com/simonbattle007/status/884788219472216068

 

Still waiting to hear what Eddie thinks about this though:

https://twitter.com/Crashland89/status/884781325672230913

We’ll be waiting.