An early-morning Southern train into London Bridge was the most overcrowded service recorded last year, with 267 passengers crammed into two carriages designed for 107 people.



Trains in the Govia Thameslink Railway franchise running into London, which include Southern, Thameslink and Great Northern services, made up half of the government’s list of the most crowded peak services in England and Wales from spring and autumn 2017.

Passengers travelling to and from Manchester airport were the most squeezed in the autumn, with two TransPennine Express trains recorded at Manchester Oxford Road carrying more than double their capacity.

Commuters into London generally faced the most overcrowding, with services in the south making up 17 of the 20 listed. On three occasions in the Department for Transport’s seasonal snapshot, the South Western Railway train from Woking to Waterloo was carrying more than 500 passengers over its 720 capacity.

Passenger numbers overall fell, partly ascribed to changing working patterns, but the rate of overcrowding has increased on the worst-affected services.

Trains serving London had on average 5.4% more passengers than their official capacity, followed by Cambridge at 4.8% and Manchester at 4.3%.

Trains running to King’s Cross station were found to be the most crowded, with 9% more passengers than space should allow in the morning peak. More passengers had to stand on trains running into the capital than anywhere else – almost one in four on average, and as many as 36% on services to Blackfriars.

The business lobby group London First called on the government to approve funding for Crossrail 2, the proposed north-south metro line, to ease the crush.



Jasmine Whitbread, its chief executive, said: “Commuters face delays, station closures, steaming carriages and – if they’re lucky enough to get on to a train – being crammed in like sardines. If the government wants to end crush hour, it needs to plan for the long term and commit to Crossrail 2.”

Public transport campaigners said the figures showed that the rail network desperately needed expansion. Steve Chambers, of the Campaign for Better Transport, said: “These figures show a network that is over capacity and, despite a slight fall in passenger numbers, overcrowding has increased outside of London.

“We desperately need to expand the network and we want to see additional lines and stations opened to support the growth of the railways, as well as more carriages on existing trains. Delayed electrification projects must be completed to get people out of smaller diesel trains, especially in the north of England.”

A DfT spokesperson said the government was providing more trains, more seats, longer platforms and new services to cut overcrowding. “Demand for rail travel has more than doubled since privatisation, to 1.7bn journeys last year. More and more people are travelling by train and that has meant some passengers on the busiest routes can face overcrowding at times, but every train operator is addressing this as a priority.”

Labour said overcrowding on the worst services had increased by more than 25% since 2011. Andy McDonald, the shadow transport secretary, said passengers were “sick of paying extortionate fares to endure overcrowded services”. He noted that rail fares had risen three times faster than average wages.

A spokesperson for Govia Thameslink Railway apologised for the overcrowding and said the most crowded Southern train service recorded in the survey was affected by industrial action.

Overcrowding figures are measured twice a year in 14 cities around England and Wales, on weekday peak services.