UK commuters feeling strain of taking the train
If you are a regular traveller on the 16:46 from London Euston to Crewe and are wondering why you never get a seat, it’s because you are on the most crowded train service in Britain.
According to figures released yesterday by the Rail Executive of the Department for Transport, last autumn the four-carriage service carried an average of 435 standard class passengers – more than twice its seated capacity of 206.
The figures showed that 120,000 passengers had to stand on trains into London during the morning peak, or one in five of all those travelling.
About one quarter of morning rush- hour services into London were over capacity, while 60 per cent had some passengers standing, both figures slightly higher than the previous year.
The most overcrowded morning trains were the 07:32 South West Trains service from Woking to London Waterloo and the 07:21 First Great Western service from Oxford to London Paddington, both of which arrived in London with passenger levels 73 per cent over capacity.
Claire Perry, the Transport minister, said that since 1995 passenger journeys on the railway had more than doubled to 1.6bn.
She added: “This means that on too many journeys, passengers have to stand in cramped conditions. Train operators must act now, they must find new ways to create space on the network and in their trains.”