Free yet more elusive

It has been brought to our attention by a reader that ever since the London Evening Standard (ES) removed its price tag at the start of the month, and joined the ever-growing ranks of free newspapers in the city, those who were accustom to perusing its pages on their evening portion of their daily commute home, while travelling first class aboard a train, are now unable to do so.

At the same time as the ES doubled its production and removed its price tag, so too was a decision taken by the paper to no longer supply free copies to inter-city train operators, such as Virgin West Coast and National Express East Coast. Thus those who were used to picking up a free copy in their carriage prior to finding a seat, now have to stop off at the local newsagent to grab their copy first.

Try and remove the thoughts you may now be having such as: "poor first-class passengers, having to queue up with the 'little people' in WH Smith to take their free copy of the ES" and consider the irony of an increased daily print run of over half a million copies that are found on substantially fewer trains than ever before. Very weird. (GL)