The Transport Salaried Staffs Association has said that rail companies ‘have no idea just how overcrowded their “cattle truck” commuter trains are’.
The TSSA claim that privately owned operators have ‘no firm data on passengers numbers during the morning and evening peaks’.
The union claims ‘unpublished evidence to the Transport Committee revealed that rail regulators have to rely on estimates about the severity of overcrowding on UK rail services’.
The Association of Train Operating Companies said the claims were ‘nonsense’.
TSSA general secretary Manuel Cortes said he is writing to the Transport Secretary ‘urging her to instruct the companies to gather data which would record overcrowding on their trains’.
“We have a ridiculous situation for passengers in the 21st century,” he said.
“They have to travel in cattle truck conditions with no limits on overcrowding while cattle travel under regulations which restrict overcrowding.
“Every Transport Secretary says they want to end overcrowding, particularly in the South-East. How can they even begin to do this until they known the exact size of the problem?”
