Overview
- The Department for Transport published autumn‑2025 counts in late July 2026 showing a Thameslink morning service from Bedford to Three Bridges hit a 176% maximum load when it arrived at London St Pancras.
- Overall demand rose about 3% year‑on‑year with average daily arrivals at 1.92 million and London accounting for roughly 1.26 million of those trips.
- Despite those extreme peaks, the DfT says most journeys are not overcrowded: an average 16,800 passengers a day travelled in excess of capacity, equal to 1.1% of travellers and down 0.2 percentage points from autumn 2024.
- Across England and Wales one in five peak‑hour passengers were standing and the rate was higher in London at around one in four, concentrating pressure on services into the capital.
- Train operators have added carriages, brought in new trains and changed timetables—South Western Railway reports about a 30% capacity increase and nationalised operators say they added 76,000 seats per week—with Great British Railways positioned as a longer‑term coordination fix.