Overcrowding Survey - Tell London Assembly what you think

Although the focus is on London overground trains, the London Assembly's Transport Committee are trying to find a solution to the "overcrowding that plagues many of the overground rail routes coming into the capital – especially during the morning and evening commuter rush." Interesting that chose the word "plagues" for this announcement.


Underground Gal hadn't seen anything about this survey until she noticed a small paragraph in Railway Magazine. She did a bit of Googling and found the above press release from the Greater London Authority.

"While the problems of overcrowding are well known, the Committee will set out to map an accurate picture of the 'pinch points' on commuter routes into London – for example the stations where people have to wait for several full trains to go by before they can board - so that targeted solutions can be identified.

As well as mapping and analysis of how effectively overcrowding is currently being tackled, the investigation will focus on the passenger experience. The Committee will talk to commuters about how overcrowding affects their journey, and members of the public are encouraged to send their experiences to overcrowding@london.gov.uk"

Maybe it's because I've been on holiday in New York recently, but I agree with her following comment

"I read a fair amount of newspapers and haven't seen any mention of this, and although it's focusing on overground routes, rather than the Underground, I think it's fair to say there's a decent amount of overlap between the two sorts of commuters!"

So if you travel on overground trains which come into London, please send your views & experiences to overcrowding@london.gov.uk. I often use an overground train at Richmond to get into Waterloo and getting off at Waterloo and trying to get down to to the Waterloo & City line when you're walking against a tide of people coming the other way, is a particular bug bear for me. I don't use it regularly or early enough to experience major overcrowding - but whenever the Sadistic Line isn't working, I use the overground & it's then a major league squeeze to get myself onto the train.