Britain's most crowded trains revealed
The chronic overcrowding on Britain’s railways was revealed yesterday as official figures showed some trains have been carrying more than twice as many passengers than they should.
Southern Railway’s 7.16am train from East Grinstead to London Bridge has been named as the most packed in England and Wales.
The service typically has 1,366 people rammed into a dozen carriages designed for just 640, according to figures from the Department for Transport.
Southern Railway’s 7.16am train from East Grinstead to London Bridge has been named as the most packed in England and Wales (Stock image)
Commuters on the Transpennine Express have also endured miserable journeys (Stock images of the 04.22 Glasgow Central to Manchester Airport train)
This is a load factor of 213 per cent - higher than any other service in England and Wales.
Five of the ten most packed trains from spring 2016 and two from Autumn were operated by Southern, which has also been plagued by more than a year of strikes and disruption.
On a 5.40am service from Uckfield to London in spring, 242 passengers were crammed into two cars.
Other jam-packed journeys making the top 10 overcrowded list include the 6.57am Brighton to Bedford, the 7.55am Cambridge to London King’s Cross and the 4pm Manchester Airport to Edinburgh.
In autumn last year, eight of the other most crowded trains were Thameslink, Great Norther n or evening London Midland services â€" run by the same Govia franchise as Southern.
Commuters on the Transpennine Express have also endured miserable journeys. In the worst cases, 361 passengers were packed on to a four car Glasgow to Manchester airport train designed for 191 people, as it passed Oxford Road station into Manchester.
Those travelling to London continue to endure the worst overcrowding on the trains.
In 2016, 583,000 passengers arrived into central London during a typical morning rush hour, compared to 42,000 in Birmingham, the second busiest city.
Around 150,000 of these people were forced to stand during the busiest periods.
 Nearly two thirds of all services in the morning rush had standing passengers.
In 2016, 583,000 passengers arrived into central London during a typical morning rush hour
Lianna Etkind, of the Campaign for Better Transport, said: ‘The latest statistics show that overcrowding continues to make passengers’ lives a misery'
Trains into London Blackfriars were the busiest, with 39 per cent forced to stand.
This compares to 16 per cent on trains into Leeds, 14.1 per cent into Manchester 9.8 per cent into Bristol and 11.2 per cent into Cardiff
Lianna Etkind, of the Campaign for Better Transport, said: ‘The latest statistics show that overcrowding continues to make passengers’ lives a misery.
‘People are rightly angry that they pay more in fares year after year, but never get a seat, and have to stand crammed into someone else’s armpit. With such high levels of overcrowding, the Government cannot expect people to pay for yet another fares hike in January.’
Alex Hayman, managing director of public markets at Which? said: ‘This data bears out once again that the rail sector continues to fail passengers on too frequent a basis, particularly in London and in the Southeast. It is unacceptable that so many have to battle with constant delays and daily overcrowding.’
Britain’s railways, built during the Victorian era, have struggled to cope as the population has grown.
More than 1.7 billion journeys were made with Britain’s franchised operators in 2016/17
The government has said it is investing £40billion in the railways and promised there will be 3,700 new carriages on the network by 2019
Rail passenger journeys have more than doubled over the past twenty years.
More than 1.7 billion journeys were made with Britain’s franchised operators in 2016/17. This is almost one billion more than in the mid-1990s.
Transport secretary Chris Grayling last week signalled he is planning to scrap first class carriages on more commuter trains to ease overcrowding
The government has said it is investing £40billion in the railways and promised there will be 3,700 new carriages on the network by 2019.
This includes the huge Thameslink programme of engineering works to ease overcrowding in the South East.
A Departmen t for Transport spokesperson said: ‘Rail passenger journeys have more than doubled in the last 20 years.
‘We are committed to improving journeys and we are delivering more trains, more seats and quicker journeys to meet this record demand.
‘We know some passengers have not received the service they deserve, and we continue to work with the industry to cut journey times and crowding, improve reliability and deliver more frequent services.’Â
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