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Virgin trains at Stockport station on the west coast mainline
The Office of Rail and Road found Virgin Trains has the highest number of complaints per 100,000 journeys in the UK. Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian
The Office of Rail and Road found Virgin Trains has the highest number of complaints per 100,000 journeys in the UK. Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian

Are trains in Britain as overcrowded as Jeremy Corbyn claims?

This article is more than 7 years old

Virgin Trains’ dispute with the Labour leader has turned fares, strikes and overcrowding into political issues

Jeremy Corbyn’s attempt to highlight overcrowding on the rail network by sitting down on a Virgin service from London to Newcastle has erupted into a political storm. The incident has raised a number of questions, including whether overcrowding is a genuine problem on Virgin services and whether the Labour leader’s policy of nationalising train operators will make services less crowded and bring down fares.

1) How overcrowded are Virgin Trains services on a regular basis?

Virgin Trains operates two franchises – the west coast and the east coast. Virgin has run the west coast, which includes trains from London to Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and Scotland since 1997. It took on the east coast – which runs trains from London to Newcastle, Leeds, York and Scotland – last year.

Jeremy Corbyn was travelling on the east coast service from London King’s Cross to Newcastle. This service is not listed by the Department for Transport as one of the 10 most overcrowded train services in Britain. In fact, passengers on Virgin Trains are more satisfied with the space on their train than most other services. The latest survey by passenger group Transport Focus found that 80% of passengers rated the Virgin Trains as “satisfied or good” in terms of the room for passengers to sit and stand between London and the north east of England. Out of 78 routes in Britain, only 14 scored higher, with five of those being Virgin Trains services too. Overall customer satisfaction on the route was rated as 86% by Transport Focus.

However, the government’s Office of Rail and Road found Virgin Trains has the highest number of complaints per 100,000 journeys in the UK. The main complaint was the train’s facilities, which the ORR said was due to the franchise covering longer distances than other services.

Virgin Trains has announced plans to launch a new fleet of 65 Virgin Azuma trains from 2018, which the company says will increase capacity into London on the east coast line by 28% at peak times.

2) How does overcrowding on Virgin services compare with the rest of the network and what are the most overcrowded routes in Britain?

In contrast to Virgin Trains, just 47% of passengers on c2c’s Tilbury line in Essex and TfL Rail in London rated the space to sit and stand as “satisfied or good”. Although the TfL Rail service is operated by MTR Corporation, a private company, it is controlled by a public authority - Transport for London.

Figures from the Department for Transport show the 10 busiest train services are commuter services travelling through London or Manchester. Staggeringly, the two busiest services carry more than double than number of passengers they are supposed to. The busiest train in autumn 2015 was the 06.57 from Brighton to Bedford, which travels through London. At its busiest point at 08.20 at London Blackfriars, the Govia Thameslink service carries 960 standard class passengers, compared with a recommended load of 480. The second most crowded services in the 04.22 from Glasgow Central to Manchester Airport. When it reaches Manchester Airport at 08.22 it is carrying 410 passengers, compared with a recommended load of 191.

3) Will fare reform – such as the introduction of airline-style pricing – solve the problem and get Jeremy a seat?

The introduction of airline-style seat pricing would result in the lifting of caps – limits on annual increases in prices – on certain fares such as off-peak return tickets on long distance journeys and anytime tickets around major cities. Season tickets are also capped, although allowing limitless increases on those would probably be politically untenable.

So, would ramping up fares on popular off-peak services like the 11am from London to Newcastle ease overcrowding? In terms of discouraging all but urgent travel on that service, and diverting those who don’t need to journey at that time on to different and cheaper services, then yes. But unless train operators pledge to make no more money from this new arrangement than they do currently, it leaves the door open to price gouging of, say, football fans or people who have to make urgent journeys for family reasons. Thus, higher profits for the likes of Virgin. This might pose political problems for the minister pushing this solution because the government sets rail fare policy.

4) Will nationalising the railways reduce overcrowding and make fares cheaper, as Corbyn claims?

Dividends paid to private train operators like Virgin reached £222m last year. Reclaim those for the public purse and it is a small contribution to the annual running costs of the railways of £13.6bn. So kicking private companies off the railways does not seem a long-term answer in terms of buying more trains – a big order for a single commuter route costs at least £1bn – or subsidising fare expenditure, which saw commuters shell out £8.8bn in 2014-15. The easiest way to reduce that fare expenditure is to look at the other side of the rail funding equation: the state. The taxpayer puts in around £3.5bn a year and if that is to increase as a Labour policy, Corbyn will need to find the money from somewhere.

5) What are the other potential solutions to overcrowding and expensive fares?

Reduce industry costs, which rose by 7%, or £900m, last year. The consequences of trying to pull that off are being played out on the Southern commuter route in London currently. Southern is introducing trains that don’t need guards, which are cheaper to operate in the long run, and it has triggered a series of strikes. Better management of industrial relations is needed to pull off meaningful cost reductions.

Secondly, costs need to fall at Network Rail, the state-owned company that operates the country’s tracks and stations. It has debts of more than £40bn and those need to be reduced. Cutting fare revenue would have to be balanced, potentially, by adding to that debt in order to make good the funding shortfall.

6) With the Southern dispute entering another month of strikes, are the railways in a bit of a mess?

The railways are in a much better state than they were at the peak of the Railtrack debacle in 2000, which ultimately saw the government take back control of the nation’s tracks and stations through the creation of Network Rail. Since that lowpoint, rail safety and punctuality has improved and passenger use has rocketed, You could argue that overcrowding is a consequence of success as more and more people use a reliable service.

7) Why did Virgin Trains go public with its footage of Corbyn?

Corbyn’s comments about overcrowding on Virgin Trains undoubtedly struck a raw nerve with Sir Richard Branson, who fiercely protects the reputation of his brands. Virgin Trains will soon be bidding to extend the west coast franchise, which ends in 2018, so will be anxious to correct any perceptions that its services are overcrowded and that customer satisfaction is falling.

The Labour leader has described Branson as a “tax exile” and made it clear that he wants to nationalise the railways, meaning Branson had an extra incentive to respond to Corbyn rather than let his comments pass. A cynic may also suggest that traingate helped to take some of the spotlight away from British Airways bringing Great Britain’s Olympic athletes back from Rio de Janeiro. BA is a bitter rival of Branson’s airline Virgin Atlantic. It has taken Virgin Trains a week to respond to Corbyn’s video.

8) How much has Virgin Trains benefited from privatisation?

Virgin Rail Group, which operates the West Coast, is 51% owned by Branson’s Virgin Group and 49% by transport group Stagecoach. Virgin Trains East Coast is 90% owned by Stagecoach and 10% by Virgin.

In the last 10 years, Virgin Rail Group has paid out dividends to its shareholders worth £414.9m. This works out as £211.6m for Virgin and £203.3m for Stagecoach.

More on this story

More on this story

  • Virgin Trains did not break data laws with Corbyn CCTV release

  • Virgin broke own rules by releasing Corbyn CCTV, document shows

  • Corbyn adviser denies claims of electoral fraud over registered address

  • Virgin Trains 'teams up' with Labour to offer discounts (and a seat)

  • Traingate latest: Jeremy Corbyn gets seat on Glasgow service

  • Virgin v British Airways: was the Corbyn saga part of the old rivalry?

  • Virgin Trains controversy 'has helped Jeremy Corbyn's leadership bid'

  • From the floor to first class, Britain’s railways are a disgrace

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