Rail operators given fines warning for overcrowded trains

Ministers fear the current system offers little incentive for operators to ease overcrowding, leaving Yorkshire commuters left behind at stations or facing conditions which even train bosses have branded “unacceptable”.

The Government has already unveiled plans to hand out longer franchises to give companies more incentive to invest and improve services, but now the Yorkshire Post has learned that one option being considered is effectively to fine companies which exceed agreed passenger levels by diverting fares from “overcrowded” passengers to the Department for Transport rather than the train operator.

Officials hope this will give companies an incentive to introduce longer trains, redesign carriages, alter timetables or encourage people to alter their travel times, although a passenger group said it feared it could lead to higher fares.

A final decision on whether to go ahead is expected to be announced by Transport Secretary Philip Hammond in a rail White Paper in the autumn.

“We recognise people are fed up of paying ever more for increasingly overcrowded trains and we’re determined to put in place reforms to change that,” said a Government source. “We’ve had to put up fares in the short term but in the next few years we want to improve the service and cut costs for passengers and taxpayers. We’re looking at whether financial sanctions would be an effective way of encouraging train companies to buy more carriages.”

The move comes after the Yorkshire Post revealed last year how Northern Rail chief operating officer Steve Butcher had warned that one in three commuters faced travelling to work on “very overcrowded” services unless more carriages were provided, saying the

scenario was “unacceptable in anyone’s stretch of the imagination”.

But the Government warns that under the current franchise system there is little incentive for operators to invest in expensive new capacity when they can pocket the same amount in fares from packing passengers in to carriages.

As a result, it has been left to the Government to fund any new rolling stock, although Labour’s promise of 1,300 carriages was never delivered.

The coalition wants to impose a contractually binding requirement to manage crowding levels when awarding new franchises. Passengers would be expected to get a seat on inter-city services although “some standing” would be acceptable on commuter journeys “of reasonably short length”.

Ministers – already under fire for allowing above-inflation fare increases this year – hope this would incentivise operators to buy more carriages or redesign existing ones to minimise crowding.

A consultation on the new West Coast franchise reveals officials are considering whether all new rolling stock should be fitted with automatic counting technology.

But campaign group Railfuture said the plans “sounds a bit too much like the Government passing the buck” to franchise operators, and a spokesman said he feared passengers would ultimately pay for any measures to ease overcrowding.