Most overcrowded train at Manchester Oxford Road

TransPennine Express (TPE) operated England and Wales’ two most overcrowded peaktime trains in autumn 2017, according to figures released by the Department for Transport on July 24.

The highest overcrowding figure recorded in autumn 2017 was on the four-car 0422 Glasgow Central-Manchester Airport, with 212 passengers in excess of capacity at its critical load point (Manchester Oxford Road) - equating to 211% above the Standard Class load factor.

That station was also the location for the second highest Standard Class load factor that season (202%), on the 1600 Manchester Airport-Edinburgh. Other operators in the top ten for autumn 2017 were Great Northern, Southern, South Western Railway, Thameslink and West Midlands Trains.

The DfT’s figures also cover spring 2017, and reveal that Southern’s two-car 0540 Uckfield-London Bridge recorded a Standard Class load factor of 250% above the maximum allowable capacity, with 160 passengers in excess of capacity.

Great Northern’s four-car 0755 Cambridge-London King’s Cross also recorded a Standard Class load factor of more than 200% - with a rating of 210% and 224 passengers in excess of capacity.

The list of operators in the top ten varied from the autumn, including Chiltern, East Midlands Trains, South Western Railway, Thameslink, South Western Railway and West Midlands Trains.

The DfT acknowledges that the statistics should be “treated with caution”, pointing out that manual passenger counts offer a risk of human error, and that automatic counting equipment can be fallible.

It also says the figures are one-off snapshots and that they cannot provide a guide to current overcrowding levels. In some cases, extra capacity or timetable changes have been made on routes included in the top ten lists.