New train carriages through Wakefield ‘are making overcrowding worse’

Wakefield councillor Kevin Swift said the new stock for Northern services passing through stations including Wakefield Kirkgate and Castleford had fewer seats than the old carriages. 

Passengers have been told there’s no prospect of more carriages or longer trains on those routes for the timebeing.

The problem is understood to have affected rush hour services, though trains this week have been generally free of crowding as the COVID-19 pandemic has forced people to work from home.

Speaking at a scrutiny committee on Monday, Coun Swift said: “There’s a terrible problem in terms of overcrowding on services from Leeds that go to Wakefield Kirkgate and then to Castleford and the Five Towns area. 

“On those there’s been the problematic situation that the new rolling stock, which is very nice compared to the old stock, but actually there’s less seats on them than the old stock.

“We’ve got very severe overcrowding continuing on those routes.” 

Coun Swift said Network Rail were aware of the problem and that they’d said that Platform 17 at Leeds Station, where many services to Kirkgate, Castleford and Normanton depart, was not long enough to accommodate more carriages.

Although they’d previously suggested the platform could be extended, a lack of resources meant this was ruled out last week, he said.

It’s understood the prospect of moving the trains to a different Leeds platform may be explored but that process is likely to be complicated.

Both Network Rail and Northern have been contacted for comment.