4 March - 17 March Private Eye carries the following in Signal Failures:

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"National Express, which has more franchises than anyone else, doesn't need to maximise revenue. Last year, its rail profits rose 76 percent. That was before January's big fare increases, when the cost of an annualc2c season ticket with Travelcard for Tilbury-London rose 8.8 percent. Soon that franchise could be renamed cTV: National Express will maximise revenue by bombarding passengers with adverts from TV screens on trains.

The company already has on-board TV at Central Trains but is too tight to employ enough drivers there. Passengers have suffered service cuts since 1 January after a temporary overtime agreement with drivers ended. Birmingham's cross-city line is badly affected but Central says the service's reliability (trains not cancelled) improved in January from 98.3 to 99.8 percent (southern end) and 98 to 99.4 percent (northern). Official statistics don't count the suspended services; so Central maximises revenue by denying commuters compensation while saving on overtime pay".

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