Last Friday, I got on an early evening train to London, at a time when services are often pretty busy, but I managed to get a seat fairly easily in the back of the train, and noticed that there was still a fair few other spaces available. If there’s one thing I really try to avoid as much as possible when travelling by train, it is having to stand. Unless I really do have to be someone at a specific time, I will always rather be on a late train than an overcrowded one. Friday’s train was typical for this time of the day, and the senior conductors often make announcements advising passengers who were seated in the vestibule areas to move further back, where they can get a seat inside the carriage. On this occasion, the senior conductor made an announcement that one of the first class carriages would be ‘ declassified ‘, meaning that any passenger in a standard class could go and sit there, without having to pay for any upgrade. I’ll always go first class when possible, but I was already recently comfortable in my seat, until a screaming baby started disturbing the peace. Other didn’t have my noise cancelling headphones with me, I decided it was time to move forward, even if all first class seats might have been taken.
When I got to the first class section, I found that the opposite was true — out of 47 seats, just 13 had been taken, 14 including myself — less than one third of the available seats. Meanwhile, as I move through the train, I noted that virtually all the vestibule areas were crammed by people sitting next to the doors, some with heavy luggage, but many would not think other than a small rucksack. Dad often says that the nation will only get the politicians it deserves, and I would have to concur that the kind of apathy displayed on Friday evening, and that I regularly see on the trains, will also do little to improve the standard of service passengers will get. What was the point of a senior conductor offering this extra space if passengers do not take advantage of it? This might have only been a very small part of the overcrowding problem — and I have still never heard a good explanation about why InterCity trains have as many first-class coaches are they do, and I’ve yet to hear anyone observing the first class section being full without it being declassified. However, I’ve also been on trains on numerous occasions when the overcrowding has been dire, but the senior conductor has not declassified any first class carriages. Sometimes, they just need to be asked, but in my experience, few passengers could be bothered to do this. It certainly helps to speak their lingo — ‘ this train is to overcrowded, can I sit in first class ‘ is never done get the same result as ‘ are you going to be de-classifying first-class this evening.’
Having a seat reservation is always a useful advantage on a crowded train, but most people would feel pretty squeamish at the prospect of asking an elderly passenger, or a mother with children to move from the seat they had booked (hint hint — in this scenario, the chances of getting one of the moved to first-class increases dramatically). Failing that, I would personally rather get off and wait for the next train, as there can often be huge differences in occupancy levels between one service and the next. This can be especially true if the train you on is the first train outside the peak restrictions, or if it’s travelling through somewhere that is likely to generate large amounts of traffic at a specific time (e.g. a football match). I can’t speak the early morning commuters into London, but between the different measures mentioned above, I virtually always managed to get a seat, even on the very busiest of trains.
