South & East Rail Group on Twitter

[jazzy]

I follow South & East Rail Group (SERG) on Twitter and they give the impression of being insightful but it occurred to me that I have no idea whether they're legit.

Their website is minimal to say the least. Does anyone know who or what SERG are?

Should they be taken seriously?

South & East Rail Group SERG @SouthEastRailGp

South & East Rail Group. SERG is independent, non party political, and campaigns for better rail services.
Travel & TransportationLondon, Englandsoutheastrailgroup.wordpress.com Joined June 2013
1,565 Following
2,886 Followers

Edit:
I just realised I hadn't searched on here for previous mention of them, doing so yielded https://www.railforums.co.uk/thread...-on-meeting-with-dft-treasury-friends.247459/ but that seems to be mainly a discussion about their content and doesn't give much info on who they are or whether they're to be believed...

 

[Kingham West]

I follow South & East Rail Group (SERG) on Twitter and they give the impression of being insightful but it occurred to me that I have no idea whether they're legit.

Their website is minimal to say the least. Does anyone know who or what SERG are?

Should they be taken seriously?

Edit:
I just realised I hadn't searched on here for previous mention of them, doing so yielded https://www.railforums.co.uk/thread...-on-meeting-with-dft-treasury-friends.247459/ but that seems to be mainly a discussion about their content and doesn't give much info on who they are or whether they're to be believed...

How very interesting ..

 

[jazzy]

How very interesting ..

How so?

 

[Farigiraf]

Ironically their profile banner is a London Midland (London North Western Railway) train!

 

[Mojo]

Ironically their profile banner is a London Midland (London North Western Railway) train!

LNR operate many commuter services in the South East and East of England, which they cover. Indeed, the picture was taken at Harrow & Wealdstone station.

 

[Farigiraf]

LNR operate many commuter services in the South East and East of England, which they cover. Indeed, the picture was taken at Harrow & Wealdstone station.

It does seem that they operate along the rule that anything north of Watford Gap is The North. Perhaps a better name would be London Commuter zone + Birmingham + some of Staffordshire Railway

 

[SargeNpton]

From their website...

"The South East Rail Group campaigns for new and improved rail and metro services and facilities throughout the South East Region of England. Our geographic area of interest extends from Hampshire to Kent and as far north as East Anglia, the Thames Valley and Herts, Beds and Cambridgeshire."

So, most of what was Network SouthEast prior to privatisation, and pretty much the boundary of the South East region that was conceived by the last Blair/Brown government.

 

[ScotGG]

Yep they seem to advocate for the former NSE area.

 

[paul1609]

From their website...

"The South East Rail Group campaigns for new and improved rail and metro services and facilities throughout the South East Region of England. Our geographic area of interest extends from Hampshire to Kent and as far north as East Anglia, the Thames Valley and Herts, Beds and Cambridgeshire."

So, most of what was Network SouthEast prior to privatisation, and pretty much the boundary of the South East region that was conceived by the last Blair/Brown government.

When I studied O Level geography we were taught that to define South East England you basically drew a line between the Solent and the Wash. Nowadays I think you would stretch the line to the south of Milton Keynes. The north can have Milton Keynes with our blessing.

 

[SargeNpton]

Regions of England map.

 

[deltic]

I have my suspicions that their supposedly weekly lunches with DfT/Treasury/Cabinet office contacts are made up - the chances of having regular Friday lunches (the day when most people are working from home) are pretty remote these days. They provide nothing of real insight and some of them are plain wrong and do not reflect actual discussions within DfT that I am aware of.

 

[Farigiraf]

I have my suspicions that their supposedly weekly lunches with DfT/Treasury/Cabinet office contacts are made up - the chances of having regular Friday lunches (the day when most people are working from home) are pretty remote these days. They provide nothing of real insight and some of them are plain wrong and do not reflect actual discussions within DfT that I am aware of.

Very likely it's all made up I'm afraid. It seems that it's just some friends with a joint twitterX account asking for more services - the 'lunches' and 'meetings' with the DfT are probably 1 sided emails

 

[skyhigh]

I have my suspicions that their supposedly weekly lunches with DfT/Treasury/Cabinet office contacts are made up

I would agree with that - they claim they are a 'group' but there is no mention of who they are and how many members they have. The website is amateur and has no information. I suspect it is simply an enthusiast making claims to get attention. The vast majority of their feed is other content retweeted so I suspect that the info they purport to share from DFT/Treasury sources is stuff they've seen online.

 

[Recessio]

That account also used to like a lot of non-rail related, and often political, tweets. I'd assumed it was the owner and they're forgotten to switch from the group's twitter account to their own private personal account... But maybe not and this is just a one-person operation using it as their only account?

 

[Mojo]

That account also used to like a lot of non-rail related, and often political, tweets. I'd assumed it was the owner and they're forgotten to switch from the group's twitter account to their own private personal account... But maybe not and this is just a one-person operation using it as their only account?

I suspect the latter.

 

[Sad Sprinter]

Yep they seem to advocate for the former NSE area.

Sounds sensible

 

[Joe Paxton]

Highly likely the work of a solo fantasist.

 

[Kite159]

Highly likely the work of a solo fantasist.

Completely agreed.