Rob Peter, pay Paul

8 carriages, probably 30-35 people standing per carriage.  Maybe 250 people were on their feet as the 1751 left London Euston tonight...

London Midland reckoned that when it ran with 12 carriages the 1751 had 400 empty seats.  The capacity of their 350/2 ("green") Desiros is 267 seats per 4-car unit so that's equivalent to 50% of the train being empty.

The 1812 train to Tring has apparently been leaving Euston with 200 people standing.  Decision taken with effect from today's new timetable - The 1751 reduces from 12 to 8 carriages and the 1812 increases from 8 to 12.

So how/why did they get it so wrong?  London Midland say that their stats are based on automatic counters which monitor the number of passengers joining and leaving trains at each stop.   Anyone who travels on the 1751 regularly though could have told them that on leaving Euston the first 7-8 carriages are full (with some people standing) and the other 4-5 are at least 60-70% occupied. 

London Midland say that they will monitor the situation over the next couple of weeks and make changes if necessary, but is the fortnight before Christmas really going to give an indication of what usage of the train is going to be like when commuting returns to normal in the New Year?

Congestion on individual trains is not unusual, and it wouldn't be such a disaster here if there were alternative services available.  The problem is that for Bletchley passengers there are not.

The old timetable was hardly favourable for people trying to get home to Bletchley but there was always the all-stops 1734 or 1805 to get you home.  If you fancied risking a change at Leighton Buzzard then there was also the 1746 fast train as an option.

On the timetable that came into force on the 12th, none of the above trains are available.  There's a semi-fast train that leaves Euston earlier at 1730 and then nothing direct (apart from the overcrowded 1751) until 1829.  The 1746 is no longer an option as there's no longer a Leighton Buzzard-Bletchley connection.

For all this we have the privilege of paying £3316 a year  :-(


(Ps: I nearly forgot to mention that the guard on tonight's 1751 had the good grace to apologise for the overcrowding.  She also explained that our 2 minute late departure from Harrow and Wealdstone was down to the extra time taken for passengers to board and leave.  I walked through the train after we left Hemel Hempstead and there was still people standing.  Admittedly there were free seats in the middle of benches of three, but as mentioned elsewhere there is rarely room for a third normal-sized adult to sit with any comfort in these.  Most people would rather stand.)