The busiest commuter trains in England and Wales last autumn carried passengers at nearly twice the trains’ intended capacity, according to new figures from the Department for Transport (DfT), even as overall overcrowding fell slightly for the first time since 2020.
A Thameslink morning service from Bedford to Three Bridges, measured at London St Pancras shortly after 08:00, topped the list with a load factor of 176%. A West Midlands evening departure from London Euston to Crewe came second, at 170% when it left Euston at 17:46. Third was a Transport for Wales service from Bridgend to Rhymney, busiest at Llanishen with a load factor of 161%.
Where Are the Busiest Commuter Trains in England and Wales?
Four of the ten most overcrowded services were operated by South Western Railway, and Thameslink appeared three times in the list. The full top ten, with load factor and busiest point, runs as follows: the Thameslink Bedford to Three Bridges via St Pancras at 176% (08:09); West Midlands London Euston to Crewe at 170% (17:46); Transport for Wales Bridgend to Rhymney via Llanishen at 161% (16:45); South Western Alton to London Waterloo at 159% (08:22); a second Thameslink Bedford to Three Bridges service at 155% (08:24); South Western Fareham to London Waterloo via Vauxhall at 151% (08:19); Thameslink Epsom to London Bridge at 150% (08:28); South Western Portsmouth Harbour to London Waterloo via Vauxhall at 149% (08:27); South Western London Waterloo to Basingstoke via Vauxhall at 147% (17:50); and West Midlands London Euston to Birmingham New Street at 146% (17:56).
The figures are based on passenger counts taken on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays between September and December 2025, representing travel on a typical autumn weekday, according to the DfT’s notes and definitions for the release.
Across those same autumn weekdays, an average of 3.9 million passengers arrived at or departed from major cities, the highest figure on record, 6% above the equivalent autumn 2019 total of 3.7 million, according to the DfT’s full statistical release. Strip out the Elizabeth Line, however, and the comparable figure is 3.3 million, an 11% fall on 2019. The Elizabeth Line is doing a lot of heavy lifting in those headline numbers.
Record Passenger Numbers, but Crowding Still a London Problem
The average overall load factor for services into major cities on a typical autumn weekday was 29%. During the combined morning and afternoon peaks, that rose to 53%. On a given peak-time journey, roughly one in five passengers (313,700 people on a typical day) had no seat.
London accounts for the worst of it. A quarter of passengers travelling in and out of the capital at peak times had to stand; in other cities, only 5% could not get a seat. King’s Cross had the highest proportion of passengers in excess of capacity of any London terminus, at 4.2% on a typical autumn weekday. Euston recorded the largest annual increase in crowding, with its passengers-in-excess-of-capacity rate rising by 1.4 percentage points compared with 2024. Marylebone moved in the opposite direction, falling by 5.2 percentage points, though it remained above the London average.
Overall, an average of 16,800 passengers a day (1%) were travelling in excess of capacity, down slightly on the 2024 figure. The DfT said seating capacity has grown 4% in the past year.
A government spokesperson said: ‘The vast majority of passengers, 98.9%, typically travel on services that are not overcrowded. Where there are pinch points during peak hours, work is under way to improve capacity. GTR has added carriages to its busiest commuter services, while Thameslink operator South Western Railway has boosted capacity by nearly 30% in the last year with new trains.’
A Thameslink spokesperson said its trains were designed to have ample standing room on its busiest commuter routes, and that the operator had ‘lengthened trains on some of our busiest Bedford to London services and introduced an additional peak-time service.’
The government also pointed to the planned integration of track and train under Great British Railways as a mechanism for further improvement. Whether structural reform delivers faster than demand grows is the question the Euston figures pose most sharply: if the station with the biggest year-on-year crowding increase is also the gateway for the country’s second-busiest rail corridor, a 4% capacity uplift is unlikely to hold the line for long.
