The train operator Great Western Railway has been banned from running adverts that suggest its service is publicly owned.
A poster campaign introducing the company formerly known as First Great Western when it rebranded last September stated: “The railway belongs to the region it serves.”
Complainants to the Advertising Standards Authority pointed out that GWR belongs to its owner, FirstGroup, a multinational transport company listed on the London Stock Exchange, and not the people of south-west England.
The ASA ruled that the advert was misleading and “might encourage consumers to use or enquire about using the service, for example, out of regional loyalty or because they believed profits directly belonged to the local region”. It told GWR not to suggest in future that the railway franchise was publicly owned, if that was not the case.
Cat Hobbs, director of the campaign group We Own It, said: “Privatisation is now so unpopular that train companies can get good PR by pretending to be publicly owned. The GWR advert is misleading – it’s also a sign that it’s time for real public ownership.”
The RMT union said it was good news that the ASA had reprimanded GWR for an “outrageous stunt”. The union’s general secretary, Mick Cash, said: “The truth is that the private rail companies know that they are deeply unpopular for good reason ... RMT will continue to fight for real public ownership of the railways that sweeps away this whole rotten, profiteering system.”
A GWR spokesman said: “We are disappointed by the ASA’s decision. This campaign was designed to highlight the significant social and economic benefits the railway and our train services bring to the region we serve.
“It was never our intention to suggest GWR is a publicly owned company, instead we are proud of the work we do as a private company to benefit the region, and we are sorry if this wasn’t clear.”
The ASA did not upheld a complaint about another GWR advert that described Isambard Kingdom Brunel as “our illustrious founder”, ruling that consumers were likely to understand founder in a broad sense, rather than the founder of the company itself.
FirstGroup rebranded as GWR in 2015 after receiving another extension to run trains on the west of England mainline, a network it has run since privatisation with varying degrees of success.
First Great Western was embroiled in controversy after declining to extend its franchise in 2013, avoiding paying large premiums to the government – but since continuing to run it anyway, on preferential terms.
