BBC - Top 10 most crowded trains named

[whole diary]

[chrisr_75]

Full article from BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) news here http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-34195309

Top 10 most crowded trains 2014:

1.  04:22 Glasgow Central to Manchester Airport

2.  16:00 Manchester Airport to Edinburgh

3.  06:31 Reading to London Paddington

4.  07:57 London Heathrow to London Paddington

5.  07:02 Reading to London Paddington

6.  06:35 Caterham to Victoria Central

7.  07:24 Brighton to Bedford

8.  18:00 Manchester Airport to Edinburgh

9.  07:32 Woking to London Waterloo

10. 07:02 Woking to London Waterloo

[grahame]

The DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) warns that there are problems with the reliability of the figures, in particular that standard class passengers were counted on a single day that is not necessarily representative.

Salt. Pinch. To be read with ...

[LiskeardRich]

The 0422 Glasgow Central to Manchester airport I assume is only crowded at the Manchester end.

[grahame]

The 0422 Glasgow Central to Manchester airport I assume is only crowded at the Manchester end.

Yep ...

Top of the list is a train originating in Scotland, the 04:22 TransPennine Express service from Glasgow Central to Manchester Airport. The time when the most overcrowding was noticed was clearly closer to the 08:47 arrival time in Manchester, when commuters joined the route. At its peak, 355 people were counted on a train designed for 191.

[LiskeardRich]

The 0422 Glasgow Central to Manchester airport I assume is only crowded at the Manchester end.

Yep ...

Top of the list is a train originating in Scotland, the 04:22 TransPennine Express service from Glasgow Central to Manchester Airport. The time when the most overcrowding was noticed was clearly closer to the 08:47 arrival time in Manchester, when commuters joined the route. At its peak, 355 people were counted on a train designed for 191.

Thanks for comfirming. I was starting to imagine the people of Glasgow all get up at 4 am. 

[JayMac]

The 0422 Glasgow Central to Manchester airport I assume is only crowded at the Manchester end.

Perhaps the Preston and Wigan commuters should consider moving to Glasgow to guarantee a seat! 

[chrisr_75]

The DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) warns that there are problems with the reliability of the figures, in particular that standard class passengers were counted on a single day that is not necessarily representative.

Salt. Pinch. To be read with ...

Indeed! I wondered how long it'd take before someone spotted that 

Not sure why DfT bother to release rubbish information like this when they themselves admit it is likely highly inaccurate. Seems a bit of a nonsense, wool pulling press release, perhaps a precursor to something else later in the week?

[IndustryInsider]

Not sure why DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) bother to release rubbish information like this when they themselves admit it is likely highly inaccurate.

Totally agree.  A complete waste of time in this 'one random day' format, and just gives a licence to the press to print negative and misleading stories.

[paul7575]

Don't they make a 'rod for their own back' in some cases though.   If that TPE^▸ (Trans Pennine Express) service from Glasgow to Man Picc is only crowded for the last few miles, why not just put it in the list as the 07:44 from Preston, or 07:56 from Wigan, or whatever?

Paul

[eightf48544]

I would imagine this overcrowding for a small part of the journey also applies to

2.  16:00 Manchester Airport to Edinburgh
8.  18:00 Manchester Airport to Edinburgh

Manchester Pic/Oxford Road Wigan/Preston

Plus:

4.  07:57 London Heathrow to London Paddington which is probably empty stock from Heathrow.

[paul7575]

Of course the problem is limited to the ends of the routes. 

That's the problem with the media summary of these annual figures going straight for the basic 'top ten' origins and destinations;  the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about)'s source document explains exactly where and why each of the ten services has the problem, and it isn't in Scotland.   

In this case it is because of electrification changing the routeing of the trains through the Greater Manchester area from Bolton to Wigan, and the resulting change to timing of the first call north of Oxford Rd.

1. 04:22 service from Glasgow Central to Manchester Airport
(load factor 186%, 164 passengers in excess of its capacity of 191) Capacity is based on seats only. Service has first class.
The three TransPennine Express (TPE^▸ (Trans Pennine Express)) services appearing in the current ^top 10^ list are now routing via Wigan rather than Bolton. Previously the most crowded part of the journey took only 13 minutes from Manchester Oxford Road and was therefore out of scope for inclusion in the list as a standing allowance was included.
Overall, TPE has seen significant growth on the Anglo-Scottish route which offers key long distance leisure trips from Manchester to Edinburgh/Glasgow, alongside a large take up of customers travelling to/from Manchester for commuting purposes. Contributing to this increase has been the introduction of new electric rolling stock on all Anglo-Scottish services route via Wigan which has brought about significant journey time reductions. Low-priced Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM^▸ (Transport for Greater Manchester. )) tickets for 20 mile journeys have also contributed to the increase. TPE has now amended Advance Purchase prices in an attempt to move longer distance customers on to services which do not operate in the peak.

2. 16:00 service from Manchester Airport to Edinburgh
(load factor 185%, 162 passengers in excess of its capacity of 191) Capacity is based on seats only. Service has first class.
See note at 1 above.

8. 18:00 service from Manchester Airport to Edinburgh
(load factor 161%, 116 passengers in excess of its capacity of 191) Capacity is based on seats only. Service has first class.
See note at 1 above.

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/459321/top-10-crowded-trains-2014-autumn.pdf

Paul

[IndustryInsider]

Don't they make a 'rod for their own back' in some cases though.   If that TPE^▸ (Trans Pennine Express) service from Glasgow to Man Picc is only crowded for the last few miles, why not just put it in the list as the 07:44 from Preston, or 07:56 from Wigan, or whatever?

Indeed they do, and it allows journalists who are either uninformed or quite happy to mislead to give some quite ridiculous headlines such as the 'Glasgow has worst train' sub-headline in yesterday's Metro.  'The one you really want to avoid' the Metro goes on, when, in reality, anyone who gets the 04:22 Glasgow to Manchester Airport from Glasgow would probably be hard-pressed to find anyone else in their carriage for the first couple of hours!

[TaplowGreen]

The 0422 Glasgow Central to Manchester airport I assume is only crowded at the Manchester end.

Yep ...

Top of the list is a train originating in Scotland, the 04:22 TransPennine Express service from Glasgow Central to Manchester Airport. The time when the most overcrowding was noticed was clearly closer to the 08:47 arrival time in Manchester, when commuters joined the route. At its peak, 355 people were counted on a train designed for 191.

Thanks for comfirming. I was starting to imagine the people of Glasgow all get up at 4 am. 

Having had quite a few nights out in Glasgow, I can confirm that most of the locals are only just getting home at 4 am! That Buckie tonic works wonders!!! 

[hoover50]

I would be interested to know how many carriages these services have? 

We are constantly being told there is a national shortage of carriages which is complete rubbish! 

There are a number of Mk2D, Mk2E, Mk2F and Mk3 carriages in storage or owned by small operators and barely used. These can be hauled by hired-in ETH fitted class 37, 47 and 67 locos.

Just look at the Cumbrian Coast services and also the Norwich - Lowestoft/Great Yarmouth services to see how common sense can prevail. 

[grahame]

I would be interested to know how many carriages these services have? 

The information on which the article is based is online [here] and included that data.  Thanks to Paul7755 for providing that link.