Welsh train journey among UK’s most overcrowded

Nation Cymru staff

New data from the Department for Transport has revealed the most overcrowded commuter trains across the UK – with one Welsh journey coming in at number three.

The Transport for Wales train from Bridgend to Rhymney, which is used by many commuters travelling from Cardiff after work, has recorded 61 per cent too many passengers – a total higher than many London stations in the run-down.

The Daily Mail writes: “Your chances of finding a seat are by far the worst travelling into London, where around one in four passengers (27 per cent) were found to be standing during peak hours. This is an all-time high for the capital.

“Significantly fewer passengers had to stand going into all the other major cities in the country, at just one in 20.

“These stats, based on typical weekdays in autumn last year, show that 1,920,000 people commuted into a big city each morning – London in two-thirds of cases.”

Speaking to the publication, The Liberal Democrats said the latest statistics showed commuters were not getting value for money on the ‘extortionate’ railways.

Olly Glover, the party’s transport spokesperson, said: ‘Rail travel should be easy and affordable, yet we are still lumped with an embarrassingly poor service across our rail network, with passengers paying extortionate prices and not even getting a seat on peak trains.

‘If Andy Burnham is serious about connecting and growing our regions, he must, at the very least, restore services back to pre-pandemic timetables and train capacity.’

The Department for Transport said: ‘The vast majority of passengers — 98.9 per cent — typically travel on services that are not overcrowded.

‘Where there are pinch points during peak hours, work is under way to improve capacity.

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