Labour has said ‘record’ overcrowding on trains is ‘fast becoming a national disgrace’ and claimed that it will get worse over the next five years.
The party has published its own analysis of recent statistics on the most overcrowded rail services, which claims that overcrowding is at the highest level since records began.
It said the top 10 most overcrowded peak train routes will run at an average 225% of capacity - or 125% over capacity - by the end of this Parliament (2022).
Passengers at London's Waterloo station
Labour’s shadow transport secretary, Andy McDonald MP, said: ‘Overcrowding on our railways is fast becoming a national disgrace thanks to the Tories.
‘It will come as little surprise to long-suffering commuters to hear that overcrowding on trains has reached record levels, but the bad news is that it’s set to get even worse. At the current rate, some of the most vital commuter routes in the country will be appallingly cramped by the end of this parliament.
‘A Labour government would stand up for the interests of passengers rather than train companies, taking the network back into public ownership and creating a new body to have strategic oversight for the railway to end this chaos and fragmentation.’
Labour’s figures are based on calculating the average standard class load factor of the current ‘Top Ten’ most overcrowded trains (190.3%) and increasing this each year until 2022 by the same annual percentage (6.18%) as the previous five years.
The Rail Delivery Group (RDG), which represents train operators and Network Rail, said thousands of additional seats will be added to services across the country in the meantime.
Jacqueline Starr, managing director of customer experience at the RDG, said: ‘We understand passengers' frustration when they can't get a seat which is why rail companies are working together to invest and make journeys better with thousands of new carriages and 6,400 extra train services a week by 2021.’
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