Only two in five passengers will get seats on new London commuter train

Just two in five passengers will get a seat on London’s new generation of commuter trains — highlighting concerns that standing is set to become the norm even on longer journeys.

Ministers have ordered a 115-strong fleet of German-built “Class 700” Siemens trains, at a cost of £1.6 billion, for the Thameslink and Great Northern routes. The first will run in 2016.

According to Government data, on 12-carriage services there will be 666 seats out of an official capacity of 1,754 passengers. Eight-carriage trains will have 427 seats out of 1,146.

This equates to 37 or 38 per cent of seated passengers on routes into London from as far as Cambridge, Peterborough, Bedford and Brighton.

The Class 700s will be operated by new “megafranchise” Govia Thameslink Railway. It is promising 10,000 more seats into London at morning peak by 2018, by using longer, more frequent trains.

According to Peter Bennett, a former passenger representative at Thameslink predecessor First Capital Connect and who highlighted the figures, the ratio is lower than the norm of about 50-50. On the London-to-Cambridge line the 700s will have 20 per cent fewer seats than the class 365 trains they will replace.

Before placing the £1.6 billion order, the Department for Transport said it wanted “comparable or better quality” rolling stock.

Thameslink and Great Northern said: “The seating and standing capacity of the 700s was specified by the Department for Transport in 2009. [It] ensures people can get on and off in under 30 seconds in central London, where new trains will run every two to three minutes in each direction. Our franchise plans to deliver 50 per cent more carrying capacity.”

In a recent interview, GTR chief executive Charles Horton said the journey for seatless passengers would be “more comfortable” due to larger standing areas.