Morning train from Henley to London named as Britain's most overcrowded - The Guardian

The annual regatta crowds can hold little fear for the commuters of Henley-on-Thames, whose morning rush hour train service to London has been named and shamed as Britain's most overcrowded with almost two passengers for every seat.

Figures released by the Department for Transport showed a "load factor" of 180% for the 7.44am Henley to Paddington service, meaning there were an extra 80% passengers stuffed on to what would normally be considered a full train.

Henley's squashed commuters will see season ticket prices rise to £3,388 in January.

London commuters fared the worst on the sardine scale, with one morning train from Woking in Surrey having 64% more people than it was built for. Meanwhile, three London Midland evening rush-hour trains from Euston to Birmingham on the west coast mainline featured in the 10 most packed services – possibly underlining the government's argument that the planned High Speed 2 route is needed to add capacity.

Midlands commuters also suffered on the 7.55am Stourbridge to Stratford-upon-Avon train, which carries 157% of its capacity – which, on this service, also includes designated standing space.

Despite operating what was by some distance the most crowded train in the country when the survey was carried out in autumn 2011, First Great Western hailed its own modest success. Two years ago it ran the entire train-crush top 10.

The transport minister Norman Baker urged train operators to continue work to tackle congestion on their services, and promised to monitor the worst offenders closely. He said: "I sympathise with passengers who have to travel on these services. The operators on the list are aware of the crowding problems on these particular services."

First Great Western's managing director, Mark Hopwood, said it had added around 10% more space on trains for customers in key areas of the network, but was hampered by lack of suitable carriages. "The latest survey figures show just how committed FGW is to tackling overcrowding. In 2010, unfortunately we operated all of the top 10 services. By the 2011 survey we had reduced this number to five, and since this data was collected over a year ago we have continued to address the issue, adding over 4,500 seats to services into and out of London Paddington."

Michael Roberts, chief executive of the Association of Train Operating Companies, said: "Faster trains and better services are attracting record numbers of people to the railways, but the flip side is overcrowding on some routes. Overall, train companies now run 20% more services a day than they did 15 years ago. But train companies also depend on others to tackle overcrowding. We need government to give operators more flexibility to respond to passenger demand."

Richard Hebditch of the Campaign for Better Transport said: "The latest statistics show how much of a problem overcrowding continues to be. Year after year, fares go up faster than wages yet many passengers find themselves having to stand in cramped conditions."

The 10 worst trains

1. 07.44 from Henley-on-Thames to London Paddington – load factor 180%

2. 07.32 from Woking to London Waterloo – load factor 164%

3. 18.13 from London Euston to Birmingham New Street – load factor 162%

4. 16.48 from London Euston to Birmingham New Street – load factor 160%

5. 06.30 from Banbury to London Paddington – load factor 158%

6. 07.55 from Stourbridge Junction to Stratford-upon-Avon – load factor 157%

7. 06.23 from Manchester airport to Middlesbrough – load factor 155%

8. 18.17 from London Liverpool Street to Shenfield – load factor 154%

9. 07.14 from Alton to London Waterloo – load factor 152%

10. 17.46 from London Euston to Birmingham New Street – load factor 152%