Britain’s most overcrowded trains: London morning rush hour train overcrowding increases and Paddington services are the worst
Commuter trains travelling into London are more overcrowded than in any other city in the country, according to the latest figures.
Services into the capital are operating at 4.1 per cent over capacity, compared to 1.4 per cent across the rest of the country, and up from 3.1 per cent the previous year.
During the morning rush hour, 139,000 passengers were standing by the time they arrived into London – 22 per cent of all passengers – while more than a quarter of all trains into the capital were over capacity.
Seven of the top 10 most overcrowded trains in England and Wales were services running through London. However, the 4.22am TransPennine express service from Glasgow to Manchester topped the ranking.
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More than half a million passengers traveled into London during the morning peak rush hour and over one million throughout the day, based on the latest figures from the Department of Transport (DfT), which were calculated in Autumn 2014.
Despite the increase in overcrowding, the government has promised to reduce overcrowding on the UK's rail network by investing in infrastructure
"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," said rail minister Claire Perry.
"We have seen record-breaking numbers use the railways in the past year, with 1.7bn journeys completed in 2014, more than double the number recorded a decade ago. To meet this unprecedented demand we are investing £38bn in the railways for the five years until 2019, underpinned by flagship schemes like the Intercity Express and Thameslink programmes to provide more space and more seats on trains."
Paddington, where three of the top 10 most overcrowded trains travel to, has more overcrowded services than any other station in London. Based on the most recent figures from 2014, Paddington was followed by Moorgate, Blackfriars and St Pancras.
Meanwhile, Moorgate experienced the biggest rise in overcrowding, up 6.8 per cent on 2013, followed by St Pancras, up 4.4 per cent.
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