Trains Are Sometimes Crowded

British trains are sometimes crowded, especially around London. The Antiplanner was lucky to leave London in a nearly empty train, but other trains have been standing room only. I stood for nearly two hours on a train from Westbury to Newport the other day.

According to Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, overcrowding is evidence that the government should return the privatized trains to public operation. He rode a Virgin Rail train out of London and tweeted that he couldn’t find a seat.

In response, Richard Branson released videotapes showing that Corbyn had boarded the train and walked past empty seats. Corbyn’s staff later said he wanted two empty seats so he could sit next to his wife. Of course, he could have reserved two seats next to each other in advance, but he didn’t do that. Probably he would rather be mad.

I don’t know what British trains were like when they were publicly run, but I’ve been on Amtrak trains that were SRO. Unlike airplanes, if a train is overbooked, they don’t bump people because everyone doesn’t have to be seat belted in for safety reasons.

Amtrak long-distance trains all require reservations, yet I’ve been on such trains that were SRO. In Britain, some trains allow reservations but, as far as I know, none require them. So if you make a reservation, you are guaranteed a seat; if you don’t, no one stops you from boarding but you might end up standing.
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Economically, a rail line, just like an airline, wants to fill every seat. As a practical matter, this is never going to happen because most trains make many stops, so if they are full at one end they may be nearly empty at the other.

Government operation by itself would not guarantee that everyone would have a seat, much less that every couple could find seats together. If the government were to take over the trains, the only thing it could to to prevent overcrowding is to require everyone to reserve seats in advance. Short of government takeover, the government could require the rail companies to make everyone reserve a seat.

Corbyn probably thinks the government could reduce overcrowding by running trains more frequently. But private operators already run pretty frequent services. I rode from London to Brighton and noticed that at least three different companies ran at least four trains an hour on this route each way for much of the day. There is competition on many other routes as well and many have four or more trains an hour.

Another way to reduce overcrowding is to run longer trains, but doing so increases costs while it may not increase revenues. Corbyn may think that the government could lose enough money running long, frequent trains that it would minimize overcrowding. But that isn’t, in fact, what happens. The reality is that, since privatizing its trains, British rail ridership has grown faster than that of any other European country.

So the way government control really seems to avoid overcrowding is by providing such poor service that many people look for other modes of travel. That’s probably not what Corbyn wants. But since his real goal is just bigger government, he probably doesn’t care whether government takeover would truly lead to better results for rail passengers.