Two-thirds of commuters say Tube overcrowding is worse

Passengers already plagued by delays have to endure packed trains every day, an Evening Standard survey of rush-hour travellers reveals.

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We surveyed 1,000 commuters at Baker Street station, where four lines maintained by Metronet meet, and hot spots on the Metropolitan, District, Piccadilly and Victoria lines, which are also maintained by the troubled consortium.

The survey, the first part of which was published in the Standard yesterday, shows:

More than two-thirds of passengers say their trains have become more crowded over the past year.

More than a quarter say there has been no change to services.

Sixty per cent of people travelling on the four lines maintained by Metronet think trains are more packed than during the previous year.

Only 7.5 per cent say services are less crowded.

Half of all respondents have to stand up for at least part of their journeys every day.

Nearly 14 per cent do not have a seat at least four times a week.

Only one per cent of commuters say they never have to stand.

The worst place for overcrowding was Baker Street, where more than 84 per cent of passengers said they had to stand every day.

Nearly four out of five respondents said they were forced to stand for all or some of the time during their journey. None said there was a day when they did not have to stand at some point.

On the Metropolitan line, only one

per cent of passengers said they never had to stand during their journey, while more than a third said they never have a seat on any day.

On the Piccadilly line, which is run by Tube Lines but maintained by Metronet, more than half of commuters said they had to stand every day.

The findings come just months after it was revealed that a record one billion passengers travelled on the Underground last year and the four lines involved in our survey experienced a growth in custom.

On average, the network carries just over three million passengers a day but the total topped four million for the first time on one day in December.

Metronet sparked a crisis last week when it called for the arbiter of its public-private partnership contract to carry out an extraordinary review of the work it has carried out on the Bakerloo, Central and Victoria lines.

It is the latest stage in a long-running row with Ken Livingstone and Transport for London as the consortium tries to claim back an estimated £1billion for cost over-runs.

The Mayor has said repeatedly that taxpayers and passengers will not be asked to find the extra money.

Passenger watchdogs said the survey's findings were not surprising.

Brian Cooke of London TravelWatch said: "Those in charge need to come up with a plan for the future. It's not a very easy problem to solve, especially during-rush hour, as on lots of lines there's a train a minute so overcrowding isn't just due to delays."

Transport for London said attempts were being made to ease overcrowding on the network and make conditions better for passengers on packed trains.

A spokeswoman said: "New trains with air-conditioning have been ordered for the Circle, District, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan lines. On the Circle and Hammersmith & City lines, trains will increase from six to seven carriages, which will increase capacity by 17 per cent.

"The Jubilee line upgrade will be delivered in 2009, the Northern line in 2011 and the Victoria line in 2013."

The spokesman added that London Underground bosses conceded that more had to be done to improve conditions on the network.

Additional reporting by: Max Thurlow, Nadia Sam-Dalvi, Angela Foster, Deveta Patel and Alita Howe.