Tag Archives: railway

Hundreds of people have shared a fake offer on Facebook, claiming that UK residents can get a year’s free travel through Great Western Railway (GWR) for just £1.69. 

The post says: “Great Western Railway is running a promotion offering all UK residents a gift card for a year’s free travel for just £1.69.

“Simply click on the button below and answer a few questions to receive your card. The number of cards available is limited!”

The post also has a button you can click, which takes you through to a webpage designed to look like a GWR page but has an unrelated URL. 

The page asks the viewer to answer three basic questions, and then play a short scratchcard-style game. Another page then loads, where viewers are invited to enter their details to “win”…

Earlier this week Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham tweeted a screenshot of a UK government press release with the headline “UK announces £680m for new high-speed electric railway in Turkey”.

Alongside the screenshot, Mr Burnham tweeted “So we can’t afford to keep our own ticket offices open – but we can afford to build a new line in Turkey?”

A number of similar posts have also been shared on Facebook.

Mr Burnham’s suggestion that the UK is financing a new railway line in Turkey is misleading—the £680 million figure used in the government press release refers to a loan provided by three banks (J.P. Morgan, ING Bank and BNP Paribas) which has been underwritten by the UK government’s export credit agency. The Italian and Austrian export credit…