Train overcrowding, technically known as "passengers in excess of capacity" is a major source of public complaint about railway travel in the United Kingdom. Large numbers of commuters have to stand on trains into and out of

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, and other major cities, with more than a third of passengers standing on some services. Public resentment about overcrowding, combined with the high prices of tickets, have made this a political issue.

Most overcrowded services

of the ten most overcrowded train services, six were services to and from the London mainline stations

London Paddington Paddington, also known as London Paddington, is a Central London railway terminus and London Underground station complex, located on Praed Street in the Paddington area. The site has been the London terminus of services provided by the Great ...

London Victoria Victoria station, also known as London Victoria, is a central London railway terminus and connected London Underground station in Victoria, in the City of Westminster, managed by Network Rail. Named after the nearby Victoria Street (not the Q ...

, and

London Waterloo Waterloo station (), also known as London Waterloo, is a central London terminus on the National Rail network in the United Kingdom, in the Waterloo area of the London Borough of Lambeth. It is connected to a London Underground station of ...

stations, three were services to or from Manchester Airport, and the other was part of the

Thameslink Thameslink is a 24-hour main-line route in the British railway system, running from , , , and via central London to Sutton, , , Rainham, , , , and . The network opened as a through service in 1988, with severe overcrowding by 1998, carrying ...

Brighton to Bedford service, passing through London Blackfriars station which, , has been described as the most overcrowded in the country.

Reasons for overcrowding

The growth in train overcrowding is largely attributed to increased passenger demand, and the 'walk-up' nature of British railways, in which seat reservations are not required, combined with the inability to run extra trains due to the limitations of the current railway signalling system. To resolve the latter problem, a transition to the

European Train Control System The European Train Control System (ETCS) is the signalling and control component of the European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS). It is a replacement for legacy train protection systems and designed to replace the many incompatible ...

(ETCS) is planned, which would allow many more trains to be run; by permitting them to be run closer together, while maintaining similar safety margins, potentially doubling capacity on some routes at busy times. Passenger demand can often reach up to double the available seat capacity. Because of the different classes of train tickets, passengers with second class tickets often have to stand, even when empty seats are available in first class carriages. Although reserved seats on many trains may be occupied if they are not taken up by the passenger who has booked them, many passengers are not aware of this.

Solutions to overcrowding

To further increase rail transport capacity, there is a large ongoing programme of upgrades to the network, including

Crossrail Crossrail is a railway construction project mainly in central London. Its aim is to provide a high-frequency hybrid commuter rail and rapid transit system crossing the capital from suburbs on the west to east, by connecting two major railway l ...

, electrification of lines, in-cab signalling, the

Northern Hub The Northern Hub was a rail upgrade programme between 2009 and 2020 in Northern England to improve and increase train services and reduce journey times between its major cities and towns, by electrifying lines and removing a major rail bottlenec ...

, new inter-city trains, and a new high-speed line.

Other

In August 2016,

Jeremy Corbyn Jeremy Bernard Corbyn (; born 26 May 1949) is a British politician who served as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party from 2015 to 2020. On the political left of the Labour Party, Corbyn describes himself as a socialist ...

, the Labour Party leader, was featured in a video showing him sitting on the floor of a train, in which he made a statement about overcrowding. The video, and the subsequent controversy regarding it, became known as '

Traingate Traingate is the popular name given to a 2016 disputed incident between Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the British Labour Party, and the train operating company Virgin Trains East Coast (VTEC) and its minority shareholder Richard Branson. During Au ...

References

External links