Northern rail boss apologises for 'rude' customer tweets

A "rude" railway boss who made scathing replies to complaining customers on Twitter has had to apologise.

Passengers began tweeting Arriva Rail North regional director Liam Sumpter when the firm's routes were hit by overcrowding, delays and cancellations.

In reply, he told one their comments were "nonsense", and chastised another for their "limited grasp" of facts.

After some took issue with his "aggressive" tone, he issued an apology for his "inappropriate" comments.

Using his personal account - which has since been set to private - Mr Sumpter responded to Simon, who accused him of never replying to tweets.

He wrote: "Not to yours simon as they're pretty much nonsense and never ask a sensible question. So....I'll just block you to save us both time....see ya".

In another tweet he wrote: "I'm sorry your grasp of the basics is so, so limited that should probably go and research it if you want to understand it better".

One passenger thought his comments "refreshing", but Mr Sumpter eventually apologised, saying: "On reflection, the way I have responded to comments.......was not appropriate and fell short of the way we try to help customers."

A training programme for 400 drivers from Northern, whose parent company is Arriva Rail; North, has led to overcrowding and cancellations over the past two weeks.

A Northern spokesman said: "Liam engages directly with customers, making it clear in his profile that the views are his own. We would encourage customers to tweet @northernassist who are there to help and handle customer enquiries."a