Ridiculously overcrowded train

[dodobookends]

On a busy Saturday lunchtime three weeks before Christmas (and on a day when Arsenal are playing at home) and there are thousands of extra passengers, AIBU to expect the train between Peterborough and Kings Cross to have more than FOUR sodding coaches?

Maybe they have lent some to Scotrail

Pretty unlikely, I would have thought if they needed to borrow a few, there'd be a lot of trains a bit closer to Scotland, rather than a few carriages 300+ miles away.

This sounds like my normal commute. I commute a few stops into Glasgow Monday to Friday but my train comes all the way from Edinburgh and stops at every fucking lamp post so by the time it gets to my stop, it's rammed. Last week it was three carriages long and there were so many people trying to get on, passengers were shouting at them to stop pushing in because the doors couldn't even close. I was standing so close to a man I felt I should offer to buy him dinner!

I once saw a respectable-looking man in his 50's (suit, briefcase, very well groomed) bodily removed from the platform by station staff because he was screaming holy murder at not being able to fit on the train and he was holding the doors open.

This shit happens at least once a fortnight, I think I've had a seat on the train three times in two years.

Maybe they have lent some to Scotrail

Unlikely to impossible.

1)As other people have said Train Operating companies don't own the stock that is Rolling Stock operating company who lease the trains to the train operating company with the location, with heavy government direction as to where stock will be cascaded to. Scotrail can't pick up the phone to another phone to another TOC and say ' lend us some trains please mate'

2. The Kings Cross to Peterborough line is electrified, routes crossing the Forth bridge are diesel only.

3. there's a massive shortage of rolling stock, especially diesel multiple units (there aren't DMUs lying around spare in case of emergencies)

4. drivers and other traincrew have to be trained to operate specific models of trains over a given route. It isn't like driving a car where you can hop in and be good to go. There may be issues like height or weight clearance on a specific line meaning certain types of train can't be used.

I hope this also addressees some of the more general calls of 'why can't they get more trains'?

OK, was just going on this from the Guardian:

"executives at ScotRail held urgent talks with English operators to find spare carriages and locomotives to help with tens of thousands of travellers facing long, disrupted journeys."

dodobookends - it is carriages they need.

My experience of the same train company on Saturday evening was a train cancelled because of a driver shortage.

These are the 'set of 4' integrated electric train-type ones with a driver up the front, so they probably wouldn't be any good since they aren't diesel.

It's good to hear that the companies are attempting to work together to help one another in times of need though.

In all likelihood the extra seats will come from Scotrail cancelling other services on othe less essential lines and postponing non essential maintenance and refurbs of other units. There are some companies you can charter carriages and locos from for short periods, although these tend to be older heritage type stock from spot hire companies not franchise holders in other areas.

Well, in contrast to the difficulty in going out on a Saturday, think of the people who couldn't get to work, or had to scramble to a slow, half hourly bus (or 3), today, because there were no trains running on most of the track between Middlesbrough and Newcastle, plus no electrics for some of the metro system between Sunderland and Newcastle. The trains are back up, now (for the time being) but it's not likely that the Metros will be back until nearer to the weekend. That's a huge strain on an already over capacity at peak times (ie, all this month, for starters) infrastructure.

Those trains, btw, are mostly ancient Pacers. They're down or running late more than they're punctual.

You have my sympathy, the pacers have been taken off the route I use most regularly.

Any journey on a pacer is its own circle in hell. 1980s Leyland bus bodies slung onto a coal wagon. Noisy cramped, cold , squeal on bends and pitch up and down wildly at speed. I will do a dance of delight those fucking things are turned into baked bean cans.

I travelled from the Midlands to Manchester and back on Saturday with my 15 year old son, a journey we regularly make as we go to the football, and it's never a pleasant journey thanks to overcrowding on the trains. Saturday was particularly bad though, the train was absolutely rammed with people even sitting on the floor in the toilets because that was the only available space left. How the fuck are the train companies getting away with overcrowding? It's a safety issue, especially when someone is blocking a doorway with a pushchair but they have absolutely no room to move it out of the way to let people pass.