Tiverton MP urges action on overcrowded trains

Cancellations being blamed

Tiverton’s MP Rachel Gilmour has lobbied the government to take action on overcrowded trains from the town.

Ms Gilmour (Liberal Democrat, Tiverton and Minehead) asked transport secretary Louise Haigh what assessment she had made about overcrowding on GWR’s trains from Tiverton Parkway, and whether there were any plans to reduce overcrowding.

Simon Lightwood, parliamentary under-secretary at the Department for Transport, told her officials “continually monitor” GWR’s performance, including levels of overcrowding.

“We actively hold operators to account through their contracts when they run less capacity than agreed,” Mr Lightwood said.

“The rail minister [Lord Hendy] additionally meets with train operating companies to review their performance.

“We work closely with Great Western Railway to match supply to demand within operational and financial constraints including the provision of additional summer services.

“Great Western Railway is also exploring opportunities to increase the capacity of its rolling stock fleet.”

GWR said it is aware of challenges on some trains, especially if trains are cancelled or have fewer carriages.

It added that many issues are caused by the region’s train infrastructure, with a recent fatality near Swindon leading to trains not being able to get to the right depots for the start of service the next day.

A spokesperson for GWR said: “We are sorry should anyone not have received the experience they expected; and appreciate that if a service is cancelled or run with less carriages than it should this can be uncomfortable.

“We would prefer if every customer was able to be seated. This is not always possible, but is preferable to cancelling a service altogether. This is why we make compensation available to those who reserve a seat but are unable to find one.

“We continue to work with Hitachi to improve the availability of our trains, and with Network Rail to maintain and improve the reliability of the infrastructure our trains depend on; and are always looking at the options to expand our fleet.”