2013's most overcrowded trains

[whole diary]

[ChrisB]

Counted at destination, I believe. All exits from platform counted & compiled.

[paul7575]

That would be inadequate, because as I've mentioned in earlier versions of this topic, they will use the figures for an intermediate station on the route if that is busier than the terminus.  In the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) explanation they use Ealing Broadway as one of their examples of such a station, so they must be counting the load before getting there, and both entries and exits there as well?

Paul

[IndustryInsider]

Yes, I very much doubt the accuracy of these counts - just stand by one of the exits (such as the gateline along Platform 12 at Paddington) at rush hour amongst the throng of passengers and tell me that you could categorically state which train a given passenger arrived on.  Given that two trains can arrive on Platforms 12, 13 or 14 within a minute or so of each other.  Impossible to be accurate I would say.

The main reasons I don't think these lists are helpful is that it just gives easy 'UK^▸ (United Kingdom)'s most crowded train' headlines to the press, and leads to inaccurate or confusing copy, and the overcrowding problem often is a very dynamic one, varying from day to day so it's very misleading to quote specific trains when many trains throughout the week leave passengers behind at Southall because they are too full to fit anyone else on board, yet they don't make the list and are apparently more than 50% less over capacity than the top train on the list.  I've said before, if a train is so crowded nobody else can get on board, how can it be less over capacity than another train - unless the passengers travelling out of Euston on the 16:46 are a lot slimmer than those travelling into Paddington?