London Bridge overcrowding: commuters face third day of delays

Commuters blasted rail bosses for “not doing enough” to cope with overcrowding after passengers faced a third day of chaos at London Bridge station.

Thousands of commuters were caught up in delays and overcrowding last night despite National Rail claiming it had taken steps to avoid the rush hour disaster of the previous two days.

Five trains leaving London Bridge were withdrawn from last night’s timetable as a temporary measure to reduce the volume of trains going in and out of the station.

But commuters were stuck waiting as trains were delayed or cancelled and said more needed to be done to deal with the overcrowding.

Kirri Fisher, 28, an underwriting assistant from East Croydon, said: “They haven’t done enough. There are still delays. All I can see is more police around. The have increased fares and then they cancel trains but don’t give any reason for it. It isn’t fair. I don’t have another option for getting to work. It’s awful, I dread going home.”

Another commuter, Lydia Gallagher, 30, from Epsom Downs, said: “There are too many people coming into the station and not enough room, it’s a bottleneck. They should take out a lot of trains. People are so cross, it’s a joke. You’d expect the problems to be sorted by now.”

John Berry, 27, an IT manager from Surrey, said: “It isn’t fair to cancel trains, they need to find a way to make sure trains aren’t delayed. We spend a lot of money on train fares and they need to respect that.”

The station, which is Britain’s fourth busiest, is undergoing a massive facelift and currently is using a reduced track, which is causing congestion for trains coming in and out.

On Monday night, British Transport Police were called in to maintain order as hundreds of commuters were squashed inside the station, with some leaping over the barriers to escape.

On Tuesday the situation was initially better controlled but as rush hour hit commuters faced long queues just to enter the station, pushing through crowds 50-deep to reach the barriers.