HS2 and the return of the fat controller

THE RUSH to board the 17.46 from London Euston to Crewe begins the moment the platform is announced. Passengers, many of them commuting the 33 minutes to Milton Keynes, run past the gates while station staff try to keep out of their way. The train’s eight carriages, in theory, each carry 70 passengers. But the London-Crewe line is Britain’s busiest rail service. It leaves Euston carrying, on average, more than twice as many passengers as it has capacity for. Sitting on the floor, Becky, a local government worker laments that, “It’s like this every day. I get a seat maybe once a week. And I pay five grand for this season ticket.”

At peak times 19% of London rail users are forced to stand. The problems stretch across Britain: 17% are seatless at peak times in Birmingham and 15% in Leeds. With a poor punctuality performance by international standards and a high cancellation rate, commuting by rail in Britain is often a miserable experience. The government is now set to try to relieve some of the suffering with a major expansion of Britain’s rail network and a reorganisation of the sector. More government money looks set to be coupled with more government direction. The fat controller is returning to the railway.