mallard
Established Member
- Joined
- 12 Apr 2009
- Messages
- 1,304
I saw the following poster at Leicester station the other day:
(For those who cannot view imaages; the poster contains the large text "KIDS TRAVEL FREE", subtext "Under 5s travel free on all our trains", the East Midlands Trains logo and a "#LightBulbMoments Book now" line.)
As we all know, "Children under five years of age may accompany fare-paying passengers free of charge" has been standard fares policy for decades. However, this poster is highly misleading in my opinion, since:
(For those who cannot view imaages; the poster contains the large text "KIDS TRAVEL FREE", subtext "Under 5s travel free on all our trains", the East Midlands Trains logo and a "#LightBulbMoments Book now" line.)
As we all know, "Children under five years of age may accompany fare-paying passengers free of charge" has been standard fares policy for decades. However, this poster is highly misleading in my opinion, since:
- It's presented as a promotion. When the poster is removed/replaced it will give the impression that the promotion has ended and that fares must now be paid for under 5s.
- It contains the East Midlands Trains logo, the text "all our trains" and a "hashtag" which may be interpreted to mean that the "promotion" is an EMT idea; this may result in people assuming they have to buy tickets for under 5s on other TOC services (such as the CrossCountry services from this very station).
- There is also the slight possibility that, due someone being inattentive or having an obstructed view, that someone might get the mistaken impression that this applies to children regardless of age (similar to promotions/policies by TfL, ScotRail and others).