Quote:
Originally Posted by wyvern
Surely the commercial case for the trains is squeeezing more passengers in for the money?
If you can fill a train to full and standing you make more money from more fares on the train, so there's no motivation on TOCs or the DfT to pay for more trains.
Only public pressure will reduce the overcrowding on trains.
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I agree with the first part, but sadly I don't believe that the public will have the slightest effect on policy. Civil servants and Network Rail have 100% authority and 0% accountability.
From a personal viewpoint - my company went from 8-car peak trains to 12-car peak trains about a year ago.
Some of these are
already so full that we have problems getting the doors closed. Passenger growth year-on-year is staggering.
Since we've just about reached the maximum lenth of trains possible, the only way is up !
And that is why I'm galled that the people responsible for rail transport (DfT, ORR & NR) haven't even
begun to consider gauge enhancements.
I suspect that the bean-counters in their ivory towers don't have to travel by train.