BBC - Top 10 most crowded trains named

[whole diary]

[a-driver]

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. 

Unfortunately it's not quite as simply and straightforward as that!

Bit easier for the Cumbrian Coast services and Lowestoft/Great Yarmouth as they are on the doorstep of DRS^» (Direct Rail Services Ltd, a national rail freight operator providing a range of services with its head office in Carlisle and depots at the South East, York, Crewe, Sellafield, and Scotland. - about) who supply the rolling stock. 

[grahame]

Expecting the annual update on this one very soon ... I wonder how it will have changed!

[grahame]

Hasn't hit the headlines as in previous years - but The Standard picked it up and so did The Daily Mail

[TaplowGreen]

Whatever it is, I can tell you what the response from the rail industry will be, the same as always - "Manana Manana" 

[Adelante_CCT]

No.10 on that list, 06:15 Edinburgh to Manchester has a load factor of 161%, how close is the 17:36 from Swindon to making that list? 

[John R]

Quite a way. Grahame's last report on the 1736 was 96 on a 75 seat unit, so 121%. Would need to squeeze on another 25 before it becomes top of the charts!  . Hopefully it will be a 2 car unit before then!

[grahame]

Quite a way. Grahame's last report on the 1736 was 96 on a 75 seat unit, so 121%. Would need to squeeze on another 25 before it becomes top of the charts!  . Hopefully it will be a 2 car unit before then!

Most we've managed is 119     ... that was on a match Saturday before Christmas though

[ChrisB]

The Independent's online article (can't post a link from my iphone easily) has a photo of Paddington saying trains from there feature in the list - well, they must be well down & definitely NOT in the top 10 any longer. Credit to GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) for that. But really, don't tar a station with lazy photos!

[Adelante_CCT]

Yes, the 07:34 from Didcot was an Adelante when the spring 2015 results came out, by the Autumn however this had been changed to an HST^▸ (High Speed Train (Inter City class 43 125 units)).

One thing about that 07:34 though, it didn't actually exist up until about 2-3 years ago when it was put in as an additional train to ease overcrowding on services either side of it.


So I'm guessing the spring 2016 survey has already been done, and we'll get those results this time next year, how on earth can it take so long? They publish the top 10 with a footnote on most of them explaining due to changes in the last year these services are unlikely to be in the top 10 now. Seems a bit pointless really.

[IndustryInsider]

Seems a bit pointless really.

That just about sums it up perfectly.

[grahame]

Seems a bit pointless really.

That just about sums it up perfectly.

There is huge sense in balancing trains - having longer trains on busier services.  But this data is so late, so selective, and such a tiny sample that it does verge on the useless when published. 

Most train operators know perfectly well which are the busy / overcrowded services and do 'what they can' long before publication - and looking not just at the top 10, but much wider and on different days of the week and different weather conditions too.   What they might not be 100% familiar with is *why* it's those particular trains that are busy / quiet, especially where the reasons are off-rail - but that's a long way from the story.

And of course busyness varies along the route.   Think we discussed that last year;   I was talking to a journalist the other day looking for a Wiltshire story in the (over)crowding on Thames Valley suburban services.   "What if someone's travelling from Swindon / Chippenham and changing onto that train at Reading to get to Maidenhaed or Slough?".    Yes, but the peak crowding is in the inner suburbs - and our Wiltshire passenger will be getting off as the peak crush gets on!

[stuving]

I can't see a link above to the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about)Rail Executive's original data: it's here for the latest write-up covering spring and autumn 2015, and here if you want access to the whole series from 2011 and .CSV data files as well.

Both sets of data come from internal management information within TOCs^▸ (Train Operating Company), from a variety of methods and timescales. I'm sure that applies to the totality of data supplied to DfT, not just the top ten trains. It may be that the trains where loading is an issue get better monitoring, while it's the little-used ones that get an occasional single day's numbers recorded. Then again it may not.

GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) disappear from the list between spring and autumn 2015. I'm not really sure why, but I suspect it was a few minor changes targeted specifically at those crowded services in the earlier list. You can call that gaming the system, or equally the result of this little bit of DfT "amplification" speeding up a TOC's response to passenger concerns.

As you will have found out if you go looking for loading data online, these are not available as they need to be protected as commercial secrets. Which is nonsense, of course they don't!

[Adelante_CCT]

GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) disappear from the list between spring and autumn 2015. I'm not really sure why

I did explain why above, on one of the GWR services anyway.


I feel GWR have done a very good job over the past few years utilising the stock they have available to them, which includes making more use of the HSTs^▸ (High Speed Train (Inter City class 43 125 units)).

[grahame]

From Chronicle Live

Newcastle's trains are some of the least overcrowded in the country - what do you think?

There were no peak services into Newcastle carrying more passengers than they were designed to, where as 94,000 London-bound passengers had to stand

Rail passengers in Newcastle are some of the best off when it comes to overcrowding.

During peak morning hours, Newcastle has some of the smallest levels of overcrowding on train services compared to the rest of the country.

According to data from the Department of Transport, no train services arriving in Newcastle between 8am and 9am had more passengers than they were designed to carry. In comparison, nearly half of all trains arriving in London at the same time were filled above capacity - and 30 per cent of all passengers had to stand.

None of the train operators in Newcastle had problems with serious overcrowding, although TransPennine Express did see 10 per cent of its passengers standing on services that arrived into the city between 7am and 10am.

[Adelante_CCT]

The usual annual overcrowded trains list was released the other day.
Here is the top 10 list.
Whilst here is the link to the usual PDF that explains how the list is already out of date.

7   London   London Paddington   17:18   Great Western Railway   17:18

7. 17:18 London Paddington to Oxford (Great Western Railway) At the time of this count this service was operated as a 5 car train, however, the service in now operated as an 8 car train and capacity has significantly increased.  Additional services will be introduced in January 2018. In the longer term the Elizabeth Line (Crossrail) will provide additional capacity on this route, which should result in a shift in demand on parallel services.