Double-decker trains could hit Britain’s railways to ease overcrowding on busiest routes: Smaller seats for passengers and new London terminus also among plans
Double-decker trains can carry over 50 per cent more passengers
But they would require significant modifications to routes and stations
Rail 'flyovers' also suggested to speed up express services on busy routes
Published: 21:51, 14 December 2014 | Updated: 09:48, 15 December 2014
Bus passengers are already well used to 'going upstairs' in most of Britain's cities, but now trains may be set to get another level.
Double-decker carriages on busy services are just one of the ideas proposed to pre-empt an explosion in passenger numbers.
Other measures include building rail 'flyovers' for express services to bypass busy stations and squeezing more passengers into narrower seats.
The first new London terminus in nearly 120 years is also mooted.
The proposals are included in a series of reports by Network Rail, the agency that administers most of Britain's rail infrastructure.
The reports, seen by The Sunday Times, set out the options for the coming three decades, during which passenger numbers are expected to double from 1.6billion to 3.2billion a year.
Train companies have already been shamed by figures revealing some routes regularly carry double the passengers they should at peak times, with many thousands forced to stand on long commutes.
It's with this overcrowding in mind that Network Rail officials propose introducing double-decker trains during busy periods between Basingstoke, Woking and London Waterloo.
The 7.32 Woking to Waterloo is Britain's most-overcrowded morning rush hour train, designed to carry 738 passengers but actually cramming 1,278 on board - or 540 more than it should.
Another proposal would be to use double-deckers between London and Southampton, which could ferry up to 7,000 more workers into the capital during peak hours.
Proposals are still at an early stage. Mark Hookham, The Sunday Times' transport correspondent, reports that
it was decided that none of the double-decker carriages in use abroad were suitable for Britain's railways, where station platforms are higher than elsewhere and much older railway laid with too small a loading gauge.
The latter of the double-decker proposals would also involve the rebuilding of several low bridges and tunnels, which could offer poor value for money, the paper cited one report as warning.
Other proposals included the construction of a £100million rail 'flyover' at Woking, and another at Basingstoke costing up to £175million, which would allow express services to quickly bypass those stations.
Another scheme was to increase the number of carriages that cram five seats abreast, a move admitted to be drastically unpopular with the travelling public.
Officials concede that while shrinking seats from 17.7in wide to 16.9in would mean more seats overall, 'it is known that some passengers prefer to stand rather than sit in the middle seat of three on busy trains.'
Another report includes a proposal for the first new rail terminus in London since Marylebone was built in 1899 to connect to the Anglia rail network, as well as more platforms at Liverpool Street Station.
The reports come amid criticism of train companies from campaigners who say that if they were carrying animals instead of human beings they would be prosecuted for cruelty.
According to figures released by the Department for Transport earlier this year, some rush-hour services regularly carry double the numbers they should be.
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