The railway industry has come together to produce a video to mark World Social Media Day on Sunday 30 June that highlights the damage caused by offensive messages when sent to train operators’ social media feeds and customer contact centres.

Often, when delays or cancellations happen, people needlessly aim upsetting and hurtful messages and abuse at train operators’ social media teams.

The video describes how such words impact those who receive them and appeals to people to remember that staff are simply doing their jobs and are there to help them.

London North Eastern Railway came up with the idea for a ‘Be Kind’ campaign where staff wear badges bearing the ‘Be Kind’ message.

They serve as a reminder that they are like everyone else and are people too, and request kindness.

The ‘Be Kind’ campaign is for all staff, not just frontline colleagues who meet the public, but the unseen colleagues working behind the scenes who communicate with customers via social media and email.

Other train operators soon followed the lead shown by London North Eastern Railway and joined the ‘Be Kind’ campaign.

More than half of UK train operators, including Great Western Railway, TransPennine Express, and South Western Railway, have already signed up for the campaign, and more are set to follow soon.

Earlier this year, South Western Railway launched its own campaign highlighting the impact of abuse towards rail staff.

Name badges are increasingly being used as a quick way to get a message across, such as the ones launched by TransPennine Express staff that have a national flag in one corner to identify the language besides English spoken by the wearer,

We’ve all experienced a time when travel plans are unexpectedly altered, and we understand it can be disappointing and frustrating. But it’s never acceptable to vent that frustration by being abusive or insulting, whether to someone’s face or over a keyboard.

The ‘Be Kind’ campaign aims to humanise rail staff and remind everyone that they are people with feelings too. They’re someone’s mum, dad, daughter, son or partner. They’re people just doing their job and offering help and support. So, we’re asking for respect and kindness towards each other.

Penny Bond BEM, LNER’s Internal Communications Manager who founded the ‘Be Kind’ campaign

South Western Railway is proud to add our voice to the ‘Be Kind’ campaign and to highlight the damage that thoughtless and upsetting abuse can cause. Everyone should be able to come to work feeling safe and able to do their job without the fear of being insulted. We’re asking those who travel by rail to be kind and please remember the negative impact abuse can have on our colleagues.

Dan O’Riordan, Head of Security and Safety Assurance for South Western Railway, whose colleagues are among those featured in the video