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Train overcrowding in Birmingham has hit record levels, with more than 17,000 passengers a day forced to stand on rush-hour trains.

New figures show that on a typical autumn weekday last year, one in five passengers were standing during the morning peak, and one in seven in the evenings.

That number was up from 2017 and more than double the level five years ago.

The data, published by the Department for Transport, showed that on trains arriving into Birmingham between 7am and 10am, 9,772 passengers - or 19% - had to stand.

That figure had stood at 6,729, or 15%, in 2017.

It has doubled since 2014, when 4,610 passengers stood on a typical morning service.

During the evening peak, on trains leaving Birmingham between 4pm and 7pm, 7,535 passengers had to stand on a typical autumn weekday in 2018.

This was up from 5,507 in 2017, and again more than double the figure from 2014 (3,196 passengers).

In both the morning and the evening, the number of passengers standing on trains to and from Birmingham is at the highest it has been since records began in 2010.

The figure is even worse during the busiest parts of rush-hour.

(Image: Lauren Hurley/PA Wire)

Between 8am and 9am, more than a quarter of passengers (26%) had to stand on services coming in to the city, up from 20% the previous year.

Overcrowding is monitored using a measure called “passengers in excess of capacity”, or PiXC.

This works out crowding levels as a percentage of standard-class passengers above a train’s capacity at its busiest point.

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In 2018, PiXC in Birmingham was at its highest level in eight years.

During the morning three-hour peak, trains were running at 4.6% above capacity, almost double the figure of 2.4% recorded in 2017.

During the afternoon three-hour peak, PiXC stood at 2.3% above capacity, up from 1.5%.

The busiest services arriving at Birmingham stations in the morning were run by West Midlands Trains, with 24% of passengers forced to stand on a typical autumn weekday. Chiltern Railways, at 22%, was second.

In the afternoon, 18% of passengers leaving Birmingham stations on West Midlands Trains were standing, as were 11% of passengers on Virgin Trains West Coast services.

Most cities across England and Wales experienced an increase in standing passengers within the morning peak in 2018.

Overall, 175,431 passengers were standing on a typical morning commute, and 108,560 were standing on a typical evening commute.

Crowding in 2018, based on PiXC was highest in Cambridge (4.8%), followed by London (4.0%) and Birmingham (3.4%).

The most crowded service last year was the 5:46pm London Euston to Crewe West Midland Trains service.

On departing London Euston, the service was carrying more than twice the number of passengers it had capacity for (214% full).