THREE of the 10 most crowded trains in the country travel through Oxfordshire, official figures have revealed.

Hundreds of passengers are forced to stand on the First Great Western (FGW) services from Oxford and Banbury as they get closer to London's Paddington station because there aren’t enough seats.

And last night Oxford East MP Andrew Smith said he’d be taking the issue up with the rail operator to see what can be done.

According to the Department for Transport figures released yesterday, using a snapshot from last autumn, the 7.21am Oxford to London Paddington service was the third most crowded train in England and Wales with 418 passengers vying for just 242 seats – running 73 per cent over capacity.

The 7am from Oxford to Paddington had 368 passengers competing for 241 seats and was the 10th most crowded.

The 6.07am from Banbury to London Paddington saw 956 passengers battle for just 608 seats and was the seventh busiest service.

FGW said it was working to improve services but recognised there was still “much to do”.

Dennis Tan, of passenger group OxRail, a regular Oxford to Paddington commuter, said: “Commuters are being asked to shoulder an increasing share of the cost of the railways but there is no demonstrable improvement in the quality of the service.

“By and large I get a seat because I get on at Oxford, where the service begins, but there’s very little capacity in the event of delays or an accident and coming back I struggle to find a seat.

“FGW have put in plans to provide additional capacity but they can still go further.”

Previous top 10 figures for overcrowding released in 2012 featured only one Oxfordshire service, the 7.17am from Banbury to London Paddington.

Oxford Mail:

  • Andrew Smith MP

Mr Smith said: “Many local rail users are getting a raw deal, paying greatly increased fares but having to stand. I am taking up with FGW what more can be done to increase capacity on these vital routes.”

And Banbury MP Sir Tony Baldry said he couldn’t understand why anyone would travel from Banbury to Paddington via Oxford because they could get the Chiltern line direct to London Marylebone.

But he said: “So far as overcrowding on the Oxford to Paddington route is concerned, that is exactly the reason why a new rail link is being created from Oxford to Marylebone via Bicester.”

Last month it was announced that rail fares could rise by up to 3.5 per cent in the New Year, although this was capped at 2.5 per cent this week.

For commuters this means a season ticket from Oxford to London Paddington could go up from £4,671 to £4,787.

Since 2009, when a season ticket cost £3,892, commuters have seen prices increase by 20 per cent.

And in further bad news for rail users, last month the Oxford Mail revealed that from May to July this year there have been 27 signalling problems affecting trains running through the county. Network Rail, rather than FGW, is responsible for maintaining the signals.

Yesterday, Chris Bates, chairman of Cherwell Rail Users group, said Network Rail needed to take more responsibility for signal failures affecting passengers.

He said: “The last 19 or 20 delays I saw were all caused by Network Rail due to points failures or signal failures and not the fault of the train operator.”

The figures released yesterday were published alongside a Government report which showed that 120,000 passengers have to stand on trains into London during the morning peak.

Transport Minister Claire Perry said: “Since 1995 passenger journeys on the railway have more than doubled, with 1.6 billion journeys being recorded in the last year. This means that on too many journeys, passengers have to stand in cramped conditions. Train operators must act now, they must find new ways to create space on the network and in their trains.”

A FGW spokesman said: “Despite the lack of availability of suitable additional trains in the UK, we have worked hard to secure additional capacity we know our customers want to see.

“Working with the Department for Transport (DfT), we are converting first-class carriages to add an additional standard carriage on each high-speed train service. We recognise that there is still much to do and we are working with the DfT to secure further service improvements.”

When our reporter went to Oxford station last night to question the staff during a ‘meet-the-manager’ session, he was referred to the press office.

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