‘National scandal’

As passengers are slammed with year-on-year rail fare rises, the service they receive in return has continued to deteriorate to unsustainable levels, according to a new research.

An analysis carried out by the Labour Party published today (January 3) has found that overcrowding on trains is at one of its highest levels since records began, with the most crowded trains packed at near double capacity.

The top ten most overcrowded trains were at 187 per cent capacity in 2017 – up 25 per cent since 2011.

The most overcrowded route last year was the 4.22 from Glasgow Central to Manchester Airport which was 211 per cent in excess of capacity, while the most overcrowded train in 2016, the 07.16 from East Grinstead to London Bridge, was at 190 per cent capacity.

Overcrowding on trains is only set to get worse, with Labour’s analysis predicting that by 2022, the top ten most crowded trains will be on average 207 per cent over capacity.

Against this backdrop of dangerous overcrowding are sharp increases in cancelled and delayed trains. The problem memorably came to a head in May on Thameslink, Southern and Great Northern trains following the introduction of a new timetable.

At the height of the timetable havoc, thousands of trains were cancelled or delayed each day, while problems continued for months, sparking a national uproar and renewing calls for the railways to be brought back into public ownership.

According to official government figures, 2018 saw the highest number of cancelled and delayed trains in 17 years.

Labour’s analysis comes in the wake of an inflation-busting 3.1 per cent hike in rail fares which this week prompted a national outcry and protests at train stations across the country.

Responding to Labour’s latest research, shadow transport secretary Andy McDonald said it was “outrageous” that passengers will be “hit with yet another above-inflation fares rise following such a miserable year on the railway.

“Making passengers pay more to travel on increasingly overcrowded trains is simply not sustainable,” he noted.

“The Government’s blind obsession with privatisation is putting the future of the railway at risk,” McDonald added. “Labour will do what’s best for passengers and taxpayers by taking the railway back into public ownership in order to improve services and cap fares.”

Unite national officer for the rail industry Harish Patel agreed.

“It is a national scandal that passengers are paying more and more for a service that gets worse and worse each year,” he said. “The overcrowding we’ve seen in recent years is not only a massive inconvenience for hardworking people who are trying to eke out a basic living on stagnating wages and ever-increasing prices – it’s downright dangerous as well.”

“Problems such as overcrowding, delays and cancellations that now plague our fractured, privatised rail service are problems that could be easily remedied if it were brought back into public ownership as a unified and cohesive network – the case for public ownership grows stronger each and every day. Unite is firmly committed to ensuring our rail services are vastly improved and the union supports the case of bringing services into public ownership.”