‘The case for retaining guards, reversing cuts and moving to a publicly owned railway run in the public interest is now overwhelming,’ said RMT’s Mick Cash in response to the figures. Photograph: John Stillwell/PA
Rail passengers travelling between Scotland and Manchester airport, and from Reading and Heathrow to London Paddington, had the misfortune of being on the most overcrowded trains during peak hours in England and Wales in 2014, according to government figures.
The 4.22am TransPennine Express service from Glasgow Central to Manchester airport had the ignominy of topping the Department for Transport rail executive’s annual list of the 10 most overcrowded journeys, with the 4pm Manchester airport to Edinburgh departure, by the same operator, in second place.
Trains to Paddington – the 6.31am and 7.02am First Great Western services from Reading, and the 7.57am Heathrow Connect departure from the airport – take the next three places.
Overall, the rail executive’s lists of the most overcrowded trains (pdf) andnetworks (pdf) in England and Wales for 2014 showed that London has the most peak overcrowding. The capital had seven of the 10 most packed trains, including two services operated by South West Trains, one by Southern and one by Govia Thameslink Railway. The 6pm TransPennine Express Manchester airport to Edinburgh service completes the list. Top 10 most overcrowded peak hours train services in England and Wales in 2014
The rail executive statistics are based on passenger numbers counted manually on each service on a single weekday last year, at the most crowded point of the journey. For the 4.22am Glasgow Central to Manchester airport train, 355 standard-class passengers were counted at Oxford Road station in central Manchester on a four-coach train, 86% above its official capacity of 191.
However, the rail executive warned that the data should be treated with caution, because for journeys of less than 20 minutes the official standard-class passenger capacity figure includes an allowance for people standing in addition to the number of seats. The three TransPennine Express services in the top 10 do not have such an allowance; neither does the 7.32am South West Trains service from Woking to London Waterloo.
Rail passengers travelling between Scotland and Manchester airport, and from Reading and Heathrow to London Paddington, had the misfortune of being on the most overcrowded trains during peak hours in England and Wales in 2014, according to government figures.
The 4.22am TransPennine Express service from Glasgow Central to Manchester airport had the ignominy of topping the Department for Transport rail executive’s annual list of the 10 most overcrowded journeys, with the 4pm Manchester airport to Edinburgh departure, by the same operator, in second place.
Trains to Paddington – the 6.31am and 7.02am First Great Western services from Reading, and the 7.57am Heathrow Connect departure from the airport – take the next three places.
Overall, the rail executive’s lists of the most overcrowded trains (pdf) andnetworks (pdf) in England and Wales for 2014 showed that London has the most peak overcrowding. The capital had seven of the 10 most packed trains, including two services operated by South West Trains, one by Southern and one by Govia Thameslink Railway. The 6pm TransPennine Express Manchester airport to Edinburgh service completes the list. Top 10 most overcrowded peak hours train services in England and Wales in 2014
The rail executive statistics are based on passenger numbers counted manually on each service on a single weekday last year, at the most crowded point of the journey. For the 4.22am Glasgow Central to Manchester airport train, 355 standard-class passengers were counted at Oxford Road station in central Manchester on a four-coach train, 86% above its official capacity of 191.
However, the rail executive warned that the data should be treated with caution, because for journeys of less than 20 minutes the official standard-class passenger capacity figure includes an allowance for people standing in addition to the number of seats. The three TransPennine Express services in the top 10 do not have such an allowance; neither does the 7.32am South West Trains service from Woking to London Waterloo.
Directly comparing these four services with the other six risks distorting the figures. For example, the 6.35am Caterham to London Victoria train is regarded as 64% over capacity on the basis that there is space for 430 passengers, seated and standing, on a train used by 704 people.
However, calculating only by the number of seats, as officials have done with the Scotland to Manchester services, the Caterham train, with 223 seats on four carriages, is in fact nearly 190% over capacity.
The rail executive also noted that the passenger numbers counted on a single day at one station may not be representative of overcrowding on those services over a greater period of time, and may be subject to human error.
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Overall, peak-time crowding was highest in London, with 4.1% of passengers in excess of capacity (PiXC), a rise of 1.4% on the previous year. That compared to a 1.4% average PiXC across the other 10 cities included in the study.
In London’s morning peak, 139,000 people – 22% of all passengers – were standing during the busiest legs of their journeys into the city’s zone 1 travelcard area. As a total of 563,000 passengers arrived in the city, more than a quarter of trains were over capacity and nearly three-fifths had passengers standing.
The most crowded stations were Paddington, Blackfriars and St Pancras.
Manchester was the second most overcrowded city, with 3.3% PiXC, but the city outside London with the highest number of passengers overall was Birmingham, with 39,000 on board trains to the city in the morning peak. Manchester had 31,000 morning peak arrivals, while Leeds had 26,000.
The RMT union criticised the findings, accusing rolling stock companies of “gross profiteering at public expense” on Britain’s railways and calling for a return of the service to public ownership. It published figures which showed that rolling stock companies, which lease most of the coaches and locomotives used by rail operators, had made huge profits in recent years.
Mick Cash, general secretary of theRMT, said: “While much of the focus is on London, some of the most overcrowded services are travelling from the north – an area where the attack on jobs and services from shelved investments and the threat to guards is at its sharpest.
“No part of the country is immune from this scandal while the private rail rolling-stock companies are laughing all the way to the bank.
“The case for retaining guards, reversing cuts and moving to a publicly owned railway run in the public interest is now overwhelming.”
Transport Focus called for more investment to increase space for passengers. David Sidebottom, passenger director at the independent watchdog, said: “We know that only about half of commuters are satisfied with the amount of room they have to sit or stand on their journey.
“We have long called for the rail industry to deliver the much-needed increase in capacity. This will require continued investment in new and longer trains to meet existing demand, as well as ensuring that overcrowding doesn’t get worse as passenger numbers increase.”
Responding to the figures, the government said it was renewing its commitment to provide more seats and services across the rail network. The rail minister, Claire Perry, said: “I know how frustrated customers are with overcrowding and I expect the rail industry, including operators, to continue to develop innovative proposals to meet the capacity challenge head on.”
The Guardian
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