This may be considered annoying enough, you can imagine the type of banal programming you will be forced to watch, but the main gripe with this system is that it will be used to broadcast advertising. In fact, I am sure this system would not even exist were it not for the advertising revenue it will generate for the train company and the company supplying the TV equipment.

Letters of protest have been sent to C2C. Their response has been, “By having a television free section in each coach there will be ample opportunity for our customers to avoid the facility should they wish“. From my experience of the system the quiet area is very small will quickly be filled. So, the majority of the passengers on each carriage will always be in the, “noisy area” whether they like it or not. I am also dubious about how quiet the quiet area will be. You will not be able to see a TV screen, but there is nothing to stop the sound travelling across to the quiet area. C2C also claim, “…our customer research showed that the minority would prefer to travel without the onboard TV, with most of our customers being either in favour of it or neutral”. I would like to know who they asked and what questions were used in their research. I would also like to know the comparison between the number of people in favour and those who were neutral.

This is an incredibly intrusive and practically inescapable form of advertising. The system has no off switch or any form of control available to the passenger. If you use C2C trains to travel to work you are going be subject to this system every day twice a day, that’s heck of a lot of advertising time. I also think if the system is a success on C2C trains, I see no reason why it will not spread to every other form of public transport.

If you travel on C2C and are opposed to the installation of this system, I would suggest helping them with their market research by writing to them to register your complaint. They can be contacted here:
 http://www.c2c-online.co.uk/contact/index.html

The company setting up the system are called 360 Onboard, they can be found here:
 http://www.360onboard.com/

I would also suggest, if you are a regular train user, that you write to your train company expressing your opinion about this system. The first time I was aware of its existence was when I boarded a train that already had it installed. There has been little if any publicity about this system at all.