A tech company has developed a game poking fun at Southern Rail delays after constant train cancellations between London and Brighton.
Virtual games design company, RamJam, released its latest game Southern Rail Tycoon last Thursday and it has already been played more than 130,000 times.
The aim of the game is to stop train conductors from getting onto platforms, resulting in trains being cancelled.
The more trains cancelled the more money you make for the company - a state of affairs the real train operator says is completely untrue.
RamJam owner, Tom Jackson, said the idea for the game came after his team had to cancel a trip to London because of delayed and cancelled trains.
He said: “We were supposed to be going to London about a month ago and we just gave up trying in the end.
“We thought the game would be a bit of fun and a little way of getting back at Southern Rail.
“It is based on the principle that we think Southern deliberately cancels trains so they do not have to pay compensation for late journeys.”
Since the release of the game commuters have been showing their support, describing it as “genius” and the “perfect commute stress reliever”.
One player even said the game is “better than Pokémon GO”.
Tom, who created the game with colleagues Toby Funnell, Phil Hart and Jonathon Barrowman, said they had received a “positive response”, adding: “One woman even emailed us directly today to personally thank us for making the game and creating fun out of a stressful situation.”
A Southern Rail spokesman denied claims that the company makes money from cancelling trains, saying: “Southern makes no money by cancelling trains – in fact the opposite is true.
“We are trying hard to give passengers the best service possible under very difficult circumstances and apologise sincerely.”
Southern has come under fire recently for cancelling trains during a dispute between the company and train union RMT.
Yesterday commuters faced even more delays after a sinkhole opened under the tracks near Forest Hill station.
The hole caused delays between London Bridge and East Croydon and engineers were still trying to fix the problem this morning.
