MIG wrote:

At least SET has finally made some suburban trains as long as they were
when they were slam-door. The peak trains to London Bridge via East
Croydon and Tulse Hill tend to be six coaches I think, and certainly
never more than eight, yet they are not more crowded then the ten-coach
SET services they are in parallel with on the approach to London
Bridge.

The peak Thameslinks through Tulse Hill are almost always 8 coaches
(except on Monday, when everything was in the wrong place because of
the problems near Bedford, which meant overcrowding that was dangerous
rather than just uncomfortable!) The SET peak trains to Blackfriars via
Herne Hill are generally 6 and busy but not overcrowded.

Where there is overcrowding on Southern, it is due to short trains,
like a four-coach evening peak train I caught to Brockley a while back.

There used to be a London Bridge - Beckenham train at about 6.30 that
was booked for a 2-coach 456, and every day the driver made an
announcement that the train was *not* short formed. That was not a
pleasant ride.

There used to be a London Bridge - Beckenham train at about 6.30 that
was booked for a 2-coach 456, and every day the driver made an
announcement that the train was *not* short formed. That was not a
pleasant ride.

So I'm thinking, where trains are overcrowded due to being too short,
they'll use the congestion charge to pay for more vehicles, so the
trains won't be crowded any more and the congestion charge will be
withdrawn?

I wonder.