Are trains overcrowded?

Source

RAIL PASSENGER GROUPS reacted angrily after industry bosses investigating conditions on the nation's trains claimed there was no such thing as overcrowding.

The remark is set to anger millions of commuters who suffer the daily grind of squeezing on to a packed train.

And industry bosses said that high passenger numbers were a sign of success and while a journey in a confined, unventilated space may be uncomfortable, it is not dangerous.

The term overcrowding has simply been banned on the trains. Instead Rail Safety and Standards Board bosses want us to use the term 'crowding'.

Clive Williams, of the Rail Passengers Committee, said: 'Crowding is crowding. Rather than arguing over which term to use, the RSSB should be looking into additional carriage provision and how to improve the railways.'

Cathy Gilleece, RSSB spokeswoman, said: 'Our project is about crowding and that's what we're calling it.'

But Liberal Democrat MP Tom Brake said: 'They are playing with words. Passengers understand what overcrowding is.'

Source 2:

Rail passengers suffering 'daily trauma' on overcrowded trains

Overcrowding routinely experienced by commuters on Britain's trains is "positively frightening" and will get worse, MPs reported yesterday.

The Commons Transport Committee urged train companies to take immediate action to tackle the problem which amounted to a "daily trauma" for many passengers. The regime for monitoring overcrowding was "absurd", the MPs said, because it was calculated once a year throughout an operator's franchise area, rather than on specific routes in the rush hour. The system "significantly understated the true level of crowding", they added.

The committee's report, Overcrowding on Public Transport, said stricter performance criteria should be introduced to force operators to improve a "difficult, unpleasant and unacceptable" situation.

Gwyneth Dunwoody, the committee chairman, said train companies tolerated packed trains because it was profitable to do so. She said that overcrowding had a major impact on commuters' quality of life. "Overcrowding is not an act of God," she said. "It is something that can be dealt with and should be dealt with urgently."

The report found that some companies, such as Arriva, which runs trains in the north of England, were using the supposed requirements of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) as an "excuse'' for failing to tackle the issue. Arriva told the committee that it could not run trains which were longer than platforms at particular stations, but the HSE told MPs that it was prepared to assess such applications on a case-by-case basis.

The inquiry found it was "commonplace'' for trains to be so full that passengers could not enter or leave them. The MPs said overcrowding was "bad, and is likely to get worse" and staff reported for work "tired, stressed and uncomfortable" after difficult journeys. It also found that the problem was not confined to the south-east of England but was experienced in northern England and Scotland among other areas.

While the present lack of capacity on the network pre-dated the Government's 10-year transport plan, ministers should not be complacent, the report said. Overcrowding was caused by a number of underlying problems, such as a lack of track and trains, a flawed franchise system, a sub-standard and unreliable network and trains that were often too short for particular services.

The report said: "Some crowding can be inevitable at peak times, but our inquiry has convinced us that the level of overcrowding is so great that many travellers face daily trauma on their journeys."

The MPs said that they were "astonished" that it had been left to the Rail Passengers Council to take the lead in research into the health effects of overcrowding. MPs called on the Strategic Rail Authority to ensure that train "sets'' were sufficiently flexible so that coaches could be added to them when necessary and that rolling stock could be used all over the network.

The Transport Secretary, Alistair Darling, said the problem was being addressed by increasing capacity through new trains and more reliable services. But he warned: "There are no quick fixes."

N.B.: How about in Kuala Lumpur and the Klang Valley? Tell us about your journey into work - is it overcrowded, late or stressful?