HS2 and the return of the fat controller

THE RUSH to board the 17.46 from London Euston to Crewe begins the moment the platform is announced. Passengers, many of them commuting the 33 minutes to Milton Keynes, run past the gates while station staff try to keep out of their way. The train’s eight carriages, in theory, each carry 70 passengers. But the London-Crewe line is Britain’s busiest rail service. It leaves Euston carrying, on average, more than twice as many passengers as it has capacity for. Sitting on the floor, Becky, a local government worker laments that, “It’s like this every day. I get a seat maybe once a week. And I pay five grand for this season ticket.”