1903 Paddington - Plymouth 24th March

[whole diary]

[TaplowGreen]

Speaking to my cousin this morning who was on this train last night, he said it was pretty much the worst he'd ever experienced.

The train was crush loaded beyond anything he'd known on departure from Paddington. A number of people were unable to get off at Reading and were overcarried to Newbury. There was no room for luggage, it was blocking  the gangways where people were also having to stand. Several children hurt themselves trying to clamber over it. People were unable to reach the toilets and were visibly distressed. Even with many people doing the decent thing and giving up their seats, there were older people having to stand long distances in appalling conditions. Comments on Twitter seem to thoroughly bear this out.

My cousin travels extensively all over the World and was shocked by what he saw, he is an ex Royal Marine and not easily perturbed....as he said to me earlier, 1st class prices for 4th class service in 3rd world conditions. He (and others) asked staff at Paddington why no effort was being made to control boarding, the response was a shrug and "It's Easter mate".

As he sounded like he needed cheering up, I forwarded him a link to the ORR^» (Office of Rail and Road formerly Office of Rail Regulation - about) propaganda page explaining how extreme overcrowding represents no risk to his health and safety, and reminded him of the cheery stock response from GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) "No-one is forced to get on a train, and anyway in a few (indeterminate) years there'll be more capacity than we know what to with"

Interested in any comments from anyone else unlucky enough to be on this train or others similarly packed to the rafters last night?

[John R]

There were three later services to Plymouth, two within the hour, one of which (1945) is shown on RTT^» (Real Time Trains - website) as running on the 24th only.  Though how aware passengers would have been of those alternatives is a moot point. 

The other point is that passengers were overcarried from Reading to Newbury (where a local service appears to have been delayed to enable them to return to Reading promptly).  I wonder whether the 1903 was shown as pick up Reading only, as that would have helped, particularly if gateline staff proactively checked tickets at Paddington. It wouldn't have been rocket science to have worked out that the first super off peak departure in the evening would have been seriously overloaded yesterday and tried to manage it.

[SirBroccoli]

I was on this train yesterday between Reading and Exeter St Davids and I can safely say that this was some of the worst overcrowding I have seen on a train back to the West Country. At Reading they announced that the service was for reservation holders only, even though the platform staff wouldn't or couldn't enforce this rule. I was in Coach D and there were people stood throughout the carriage until Taunton, with people in the vestibules, even after Tiverton Parkway.

However, knowing that I wanted to travel on the first super off-peak train at the start of the Easter Bank Holiday Weekend getaway and that demand would far exceed supply, I booked myself an advance ticket for ^19.00 on the 12th of JANUARY. Whilst I entirely accept that there will be some who will need to make last minute travel plans, surely it's reasonable to say that the vast majority were in a similar boat to me and could've been more organised by booking at around the same time.
 
Yes, government policy over decades has meant a lack of investment on additional rolling stock and conditions which you wouldn't keep cattle in, the 1915 out of Paddington on a Friday night a particularly notorious example. But I ask you this question. Would the demand yesterday evening and the limited paths out of Paddington meant overcrowding, irrespective of how many extra trains GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) put on? The two additional trains to Swansea and Penzance were also reported to be full and standing for long periods last night.

Just my two cents.

Cheers,
Alex

[broadgage]

This is nothing new, though that does not make it any more acceptable. I have experienced similar conditions in previous years on Maundy Thursday, before vowing "never again" and altering my working arrangements so as to avoid travel at times when the railway cant cope.

Increases in capacity are always a few years in the future, I think that I still have a letter received from FGW^▸ (First Great Western) in about 2003, apologising for overcrowding at Easter and explaining that increased capacity would be available "in a few years"

I have previously expressed doubts about the adequacy of the new shorter trains that are to replace the HSTs^▸ (High Speed Train). They may well prove just barely sufficient under normal conditions, at least for the first year or two.
Obviously we cant expect the railway industry to provide capacity for Easter, Christmas, bank holidays, rush hours, beginning of university terms, major rugby matches, weekends, school holidays, cup finals, pop festivals, and all the other events that happen so seldom as to make provision for such events unreasonable.

[Umberleigh]

Talking to my nephew who is at college in Plymouth and most of his friend use either National Express or Megabus, partly because of cost but most because they are carrying luggage and have had experiences of packed trains with no luggage space, or having to leave their belongings out of sight. Apart from the longer journey time, apparently the National Express coaches measure up well, with leather seats, air con, toilet, and some have wifi

[TaplowGreen]

It seems to me that there is a willingness by GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) to sell as many tickets as possible with no effort to manage the consequences. If they can manage boarding for events like Glastonbury, why not for these occasions too? There seems to be an overwhelming case for limiting ticket sales for these extremely busy services with seat reservations only and perhaps a very limited number of tickets sold for an unreserved carriage. If passengers were being told "reservations only" at Reading as Sir Broccoli states, why couldn't this have been the case at Paddington?

Obviously GWR won't do this, as they are putting their revenue ahead of any considerations of safety or comfort for their passengers. Whilst it maybe the case in a pure engineering sense that excess loading does not compromise safety in terms of the integrity of the train, only a fool would insist that the physical environment endured by customers last night and on similar occasions is either safe or healthy, and in the event of an emergency or need for sudden evacuation on a train packed 3, 4  or more times over capacity? Doesn't bear thinking about.

Tongue firmly in cheek, Broadgage hits the nail on the head. Despite repeated assurances, the railway is unable to cope with perfectly predictable and regularly repeated periods of high demand which can be anticipated months in advance, and they appear to be totally unable to manage the equally predictable chaos and consequences of selling far too many tickets for the services which do run.........still, all that revenue pays for a lot of green paint I guess, so who's worrying?

[grahame]

... or having to leave their belongings out of sight. ...

I witnessed the aftermath of a young ladies case bag being taken off the train at an intermediate [major] station on Monday ... got to say "allegedly" but her distress looked pretty genuine, and there was a general assumption on the part of other through passengers that it had been stolen by [description given].

Not for the first time, I wondered about the seats facing away from the luggage;  I noted a luggage rack on a 170 later in the week well away from the door, making it necessary for people to carry past people - perhaps IEPs^▸ (Intercity Express Program / Project.) will have luggage racks in the middle of the seats?

Further question ... Is there a motion alarm for sale that could be left in luggage - not too sensitive t go off on train motion, but it would if picked up without being disarmed?

[ChrisB]

I do believe pax mostly have brains & they can always choose to travel on different services?

Why should an operator do the thinking for pax? Extremely few of those travellers will be first time travellers over busy periods & thus chose freely to board that service. I do have some sympathy for GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) in this instance.

If pax can't be arsed to reserve in advance, why should GWR force them to?

[TaplowGreen]

I do believe pax mostly have brains & they can always choose to travel on different services?

Why should an operator do the thinking for pax? Extremely few of those travellers will be first time travellers over busy periods & thus chose freely to board that service. I do have some sympathy for GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) in this instance.

If pax can't be arsed to reserve in advance, why should GWR force them to?

.......Good evening and welcome to the GWR Customer Service Department 

[John R]

... or having to leave their belongings out of sight. ...

I witnessed the aftermath of a young ladies case bag being taken off the train at an intermediate [major] station on Monday ... got to say "allegedly" but her distress looked pretty genuine, and there was a general assumption on the part of other through passengers that it had been stolen by [description given].

Not for the first time, I wondered about the seats facing away from the luggage;  I noted a luggage rack on a 170 later in the week well away from the door, making it necessary for people to carry past people - perhaps IEPs^▸ (Intercity Express Program / Project.) will have luggage racks in the middle of the seats?

Further question ... Is there a motion alarm for sale that could be left in luggage - not too sensitive t go off on train motion, but it would if picked up without being disarmed?

In the days before airline seats, there was a lot of additional luggage space between the seat backs. Wouldn't fit the largest cases admittedly, but were still pretty handy in terms of a) additional luggage capacity and b) being able to keep it close to you.

[SandTEngineer]

In fairness to GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) there was an additional 1933 Paddington to Penzance followed by the normal 1945 Paddington to Plymouth.  I wonder how busy they were?

[ChrisB]

Quite. And at least the earlier of those would have been displayed at the same time as the 1903, so those that boarded could easily have got the 1933, if not the 1945. if they had wanted to

They chose not to, and some boarded when it was obviously already heavily-loaded. You can't really do much more in those circumstances

[bobm]

I was talking to a couple of staff on Wednesday who were due to work the 19:03 last night and they were dreading it.

Apparently last Easter there was a relief train which ran not far in front of it and that obviously eased the problem. 

Part of the problem with the 19:03 is it is the first West of England service which off peak tickets are valid on for stations to Exeter St Davids.  In addition the train is used by many commuters to Newbury - as the train usually sees a lot of people get off there on a "normal" day.

Add a bank holiday weekend into the mix and it is never going to be a comfortable ride on that train.

[IndustryInsider]

Departures to the west were extremely busy this morning as well.  I noted a couple of 'please wait for the next train' announcements at Reading.

[bobm]

Ironically I was at Teignmouth this afternoon waiting for a train going to Paignton that was advertised as Full and Standing.  When it pulled in there were plenty of seats - most of the passengers had got off at the previous stop, Dawlish!