The data shows a total of one in five passengers (20%) were standing during peak hours, rising to one in four passengers in London
The worst train services in England and Wales for overcrowding have been revealed.
New data from the Department for Transport (Dft) shows a morning commuter Thameslink service from Bedford to Three Bridges reached a 176% maximum load by the time it arrived at London St Pancras at 8.09am.
Evening rush hour trains were also among the most packed, with a London Euston to Crewe service run by West Midlands hitting 170% capacity at 5.46pm while still at Euston. Meanwhile, a Transport for Wales service from Bridgend to Rhymney was 161% full at 4.45pm when the train reached Llanishen.
The data from the DfT is based on travel on a typical autumn weekday, based on passenger counts on Tuesdays to Thursdays between September 16 and December 13, 2025.
During this time, a total of one in five passengers (20%) were standing during peak hours, rising to one in four passengers in London.
Peak times apply to trains arriving into city centres between 7am and 9:59am and services departing between 4pm and 6.59pm.
But crowding decreased overall, with an average of 16,800 passengers per day travelling in excess of capacity. The DfT says this represents 1.1% of overall travellers and is down 0.2 percentage points compared to autumn 2024.
London had the highest number of arrivals, with 1,256,600 daily passengers. This was over 10 times higher than Birmingham, which had the second highest number of daily arrivals at around 116,700.
In total, there were 1,923,600 daily passenger arrivals on average, up 3% compared with 2024, suggesting demand is continuing to increase following the coronavirus pandemic.
A DfT spokesperson said: “The vast majority of passengers – 98.9% – typically travel on services that are not overcrowded.
“Where there are pinch points during peak hours, work is underway to improve capacity. GTR has added carriages to its busiest commuter services, while South Western Railway has boosted capacity by nearly 30% in the last year with new trains. Timetable changes are also being introduced across the network, with nationalised operators adding 76,000 extra seats per week.
“Bringing track and train together under Great British Railways will support further improvements, helping create a joined-up service that puts passengers first.”
A Thameslink spokesperson said: “Thameslink serves one of the busiest commuter routes in the country and our huge 12-carriage Class 700 trains were specified with this in mind, designed to comfortably carry up to 1,750 people seating and standing safely in air-conditioned, walk-through carriages with many handrails.
“This survey doesn’t take into account the abundance of standing room available for passengers on our two busiest services, between St Albans City and St Pancras International, because the journey between the two stations is one minute longer than the 20 minute journey time threshold used in the survey methodology.
“We are always monitoring how busy our services are and continually make changes to provide more space. In the last few years alone, we’ve lengthened trains on some of our busiest Bedford to London services and introduced an additional peak-time service to provide more choice and extra space.”
10 busiest services in England and Wales
- Govia Thameslink (Thameslink) – Bedford to Three Bridges (176% maximum load)
- West Midlands – London Euston to Crewe (170% maximum load)
- Transport for Wales – Bridgend to Rhymney (161% maximum load)
- South Western – Alton to London Waterloo (159% maximum load)
- Govia Thameslink (Thameslink) – Bedford to Three Bridges (155% maximum load)
- South Western – Fareham to London Waterloo (151% maximum load)
- Govia Thameslink (Thameslink) – Epsom to London Bridge (150% maximum load)
- South Western – Portsmouth Harbour to London Waterloo (149% maximum load)
- South Western – London Waterloo to Basingstoke (147% maximum load)
- West Midlands – London Euston to Birmingham New Street (146% maximum load)
