Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, where the greatest overcrowding on the rail network is; and how High Speed 2 will reduce that overcrowding.

DfT publishes statistics showing the levels of peak crowding in a number of major cities each year, based on the proportion of passengers in excess of capacity (PiXC) and the proportion of passengers standing at trains' busiest points. The latest publication from 2012 is published at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/rail-passenger-numbers-and-crowding-on-weekdays-in-major-cities-in-england-and-wales-2012.

The PiXC statistics show that the highest levels of crowding are generally seen on peak London commuter services. In autumn 2012 the highest PiXC levels across the morning and afternoon peaks were on First Great Western services at Paddington, Chiltern services at Marylebone and London Midland services at Euston.

The Strategic Case for HS2 (www.gov.uk/government/publications/hs2-strategic-case) sets out how HS2 has the capacity to triple the number of seats leaving Euston on the West Coast Main Line Corridor. By releasing capacity on the classic network, HS2 will ease crowding on crowded commuter routes into Euston, particularly London Midland services and potentially Chiltern services as well.