Overcrowding decried on the rail network... and on the roads

The efficiency, or otherwise, of the British transport network was strongly criticised in the media in March, with train overcrowding, London’s congestion charge, Transport for London’s maintenance programme and the Government’s new walking and cycling strategy all coming in for some scathing criticism

Rik Thomas

01 April 2016

Overcrowded trains provoked the wrath of a Guardian columnist last week

“When the police are needed to clear passengers from a dangerously overcrowded train, you know Britain’s railways have reached a new low,” Stuart Heritage, a film, TV and music critic, wrote in The Guardian on 31 March. “Modern rail travel is a slow-grinding nightmare of too many people and too little space.

“That the police were needed to help clear 150 people from a dangerously overcrowded train travelling to Penzance from Paddington on Good Friday should come as...