Posters that were put up to promote the Stansted Express have been banned by the Advertising Standards Authority on the grounds that they are misleading.

The posters, which were placed at the Stansted Airport, used the tagline ‘Train to London 35 minutes’ alongside images of the capital geared towards non-native English speakers. However, the ASA has said that the poster is misleading because the journey to London in actuality takes 45 minutes.

According to the ruling, the advert is most likely to confuse passengers that are unaware what the advert means. The ASA also said that the train reaches Tottenham Hale in the 35 minute time period, but that the images imply that from the airport, the train would reach the city centre in that time frame. The watchdog added that it is understood that many travellers arriving may not speak English and the tourists landmarks could communicate the wrong message.

So far one person had issued a complaint that the message was misleading. National Express, the parent company of the Stansted Express, said that international passengers arriving to the airport account for 58 per cent of the train’s business. It also confirmed that a large majority of those passengers did not speak fluent English. The company argued that they had decided to use simple, precise messages to eliminate confusion.

However, the ASA ruled that the advert would actually serve to increase confusion and has thus banned the images and taglines from being put up in the airport. National Express argued that it did not believe the ad was misleading nor did it reference that the train would reach London’s city centre in 35 minutes.