To think it's wrong that train companies can charge so much for such a miserable, dangerous journey.

[wanderingwondering]

Last week dh and I caught a train-we were 45 minutes early so were lucky enough to get seats. Train continued to fill up with people standing in ailses and doorways until it departed and at the next station even more people got on until people and luggage were wedged all along the aisles.
At this point I started feeling sick and faint and tried to get to the bathroom. It was impossible and I actually passed out onto the lap of some poor other passenger. Rest of passengers mangaged to pass me along the aisle to the toilet whereupon I couldn't get in as even more passengers were wedged in there. Eventually I managed to get in and lie down for 5 minutes and felt a bit better. Dh managed to get through and we debated pressing emergency button but figured there was not much anyone could do even if they managed to get through the people without stopping the train which would have been very inconvenient for everyone and tbh I just wanted to get home.

Once home we emailed the train company to enquire about the maximum people safely allowed on the train to be told that there was NO maximum!
If there had been a fire or accident i can't see how people could have been safely evacuated.
It perhaps would've have been so bad if we hadn't paid £50 each for the privilege.

Elf & Safety edicts in other areas of life are indeed Gorn Mad.

Yes, cross country. Yes, to people with massive suitcases going to Birmingham. Yes to big, rank toilet!

YANBU. I think you should get a refund if you don't get a seat. Brits put up with shit service so it continues.

In their (stock) reply to my email they said that had we reserved seats and been unable to sit in them (because reservations aren't legally enforceable and it's only down to goodwill of other passengers apparently) we would have been entitled to 5% of our fare compensation in the form of rail vouchers.
Whoop de doo!

Unpleasant yes, dangerous no. Rail is the safest land based form of transport and mainland Britain has the safest railway in Europe. Safety is ensured by preventing anything from crashing into you a collision (another train isn't going to pull out from a t junction and smack into your train) and fencing off most of the rail network and inspecting the condition of the rail and the rolling stock on a regular basis. There hasn't been a death of a railway passenger in an accident since 2007.

My ticket is approx £30 return per day (peak hours) for a 45 min journey. I do this five times per week. I get a seat most mornings, but by the next stop, the train is standing room only. I'm seven months pregnant and it's a hellish commute, but I'd need to be actually literally dying before I would lie down on on the floor of the toilet.

I'm feeling v queasy just thinking about it. Must go and look at pictures of cute kittens to help bleach brain

As pps have said, we shouldn't put up with it just because it's become the norm. I'm with Corbyn on renationalisation!

The service in my area is shit as well. 'We apologise for any inconvenience caused' yeah that helps when you end up late to an exam despite going for the train earlier than you need or late for an interview!

YANBU I moved to the UK in 1991 and remember trains being amazing. On time, clean and a seat was always available. Slowly slowly standards have dropped to what is now an insufferable situation. I also get panic attacks when I feel crowded in so it's really difficult to get anywhere by train, not to mention the delays, cancellations and general horror of it all. I now live in France where buying a ticket means having a seat; I don't know how the French do it and the Brits cannot but they do.

I think some of the responses on the first page demonstrate how the train companies have been able to get away with increasingly poor service for years: there's a sort of competitive fortitude or stoicism amongst passengers, which means that complaining will get you singled out as a nervous nelly or demanding diva. Everyone else puts up with it. Why shouldn't you?

And I live in London, so I appreciate that it's annoying to hear someone say 'holy shit, these trains are overcrowded' like it's news. But, still. YADNBU. Escalating prices and deteriorating service need to be addressed, not treated like the weather or some other inevitable inconvenience. Plenty of European countries manage to run rail systems that aren't constant misery for commuters and tourists.

Ticket prices are extortionate though aren't they? Our fate should have been £75 each-only managed to get it to £50 by doing the split ticket thing.
If everyone in our carriage had paid that the train company would have made thousands on one journey.
I suppose if I hadn't felt ill I wouldn't have thought much of it.

Ticket prices are extortionate. Trains are overcrowded, any food is shit, service is terrible and refunds are non existent. My DC would love to go to London on the train for a weekend. Instead we go elsewhere in the car as I cannot afford the fares. I seem to recall travelling by train a lot as a teen and in my twenties and the most I ever paid was £50 to get from Yorkshire to Reading. I'm only mid thirties too.