'I am outraged by this service' - Banbury travellers in furious outcry overcrowding causing passengers to faint

Furious travellers took to social media in an outcry at lamentable rail services from Banbury after a signalling failure closed the Oxford line on Saturday.

Hundreds were crammed into small trains while others gave up after not being allowed onto packed trains.

The problems raised the interminable issue of insufficient carriages for trains. Banbury commuters have had to get used to never having a seat and being forced to stand in overcrowded foyers.

Commentators on Banburyshire Info described women fainting in the heat and stated their fury at being charged over £100 for a return ticket to London with no seat and no prospect of improvement.

"I am outraged. You could get a flight abroad for less; it is beyond ridiculous,” said one woman. "They provide three to four carriages at most when they know it’s nowhere near adequate for the numbers on board.

"I object to standing like a sardine when I have paid my fare. I worry about safety issues. The 10.40am service is waiting for an accident to happen. It would be absolute carnage.

"I have asked repeatedly about the number of passengers allowed to stand from a safety point of view. This question is never answered. Greed springs to mind.

“Taking my 89-year old-mother with her zimmer frame has become an impossibility. People with disabilities have no chance of getting on these trains. It’s unfair and indirect discrimination.”

A man wrote: “It’s been like that consistently for years. It’s an awful, unreliable and horrendously overpriced service."

Some complained services were cut back during Covid, since when passengers taking the train again face ‘rammed’ carriages.

Maddie Fish said her regular journeys to Southampton make her incredibly nervous: “I book a seat every time but can’t even get to my seat or board in the right carriage because it’s so busy. I emailed CrossCountry but the only response I got was with ‘season tickets and flexible tickets, we can’t regulate how many people get on each train’.

"It’s the only option I have but it makes me incredibly nervous as I hate standing for long periods of time in a hot stuffy environment.”

One commuter said: “I’ve worked in London for five years and commuted for three. When it was five days I used a travel card for £650 a month. Trains were often overcrowded – even with seven or eight carriages. I often noticed they’d delay one train to allow more delayed train get ahead, just enough so they wouldn’t have to pay compensation for a delayed train, often making both trains late but under the threshold.

“Since Covid I drive to London because it’s about £60 a trip cheaper. When I get a train they often run half the amount of carriages they used to despite always being overcrowded.”

Chiltern Railways said its franchise was coming to an end in 2027. Labour has said it will renationalise franchises as they come to an end.

Operators say they cannot do anything about more carriages because these are owned by rolling stock operators who lease vehicles under government agreements.

A spokesman said: "We are sorry to customers who experience overcrowding and we are doing everything we can to tackle it.

"There are complications when working with an ageing fleet which are detailed in our Right Route vision, including how we are seeking government approval to get additional trains running in 2025. More information on providing more capacity and trains is available in our Right Route plan here.

"Separately, as part of a £12m investment, we are in the process of refurbishing one of our fleets which will serve Banbury customers. More information on this is available here.

A spokesperson for CrossCountry said: “The incident that caused such disruption on Saturday was caused by a power failure for the signalling systems between Banbury and Oxford, managed by Network Rail.

"Our teams worked hard to mitigate disruption, sourcing onward road transport for customers where possible and organising ticket acceptance with GWR, Chiltern, South Western Railway and Avanti West Coast.

“It would have been impossible to prevent disruption for all passengers with such a short-notice and high impact incident and I appreciate many hundreds of customers will have been impacted. We’re sorry for the inconvenience caused.

“With regard to carriages and passenger capacity, we’re constantly working hard to understand changing passenger demand and adapt our timetables and vehicle deployment to match this. Unfortunately we have a finite number of carriages and trains which are owned by rolling stock operators that lease vehicles under government-issued franchise agreements.

“This year we have introduced three additional vehicles as Avanti West Coast have acquired their new rolling stock, providing long-distance customers with 12,000 more seats per week. Next year we will introduce a further nine trains. How many trains and how quickly they can be introduced is limited by industry-wide and Government decisions about the acquisition of new rolling stock for train operators.”

A spokesman for GWR said: “I don't believe we have had any reports of crowding on these services before and the carriages provided on the route effectively manage customer demand.

"Our High Speed trains were replaced with new Intercity Express Trains from circa 2017 onwards, replacing all of the long-distance fleet; and we continue to look at other opportunities to expand our fleet/s and the services we offer.”

There will be a 4.6% above-inflation rise in rail prices from March 2025, the government disclosed alongside the budget. Meanwhile, the cost of most railcards will rise by £5, or almost 17%.