To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what criteria his Department relied upon when the decision was made to redefine to 10 people standing for every 100 seats what constitutes overcrowding on the railways. (229953)

[holding answer 27 October 2008]: No decision was made to redefine the Department for Transport’s planning criteria for train crowding. It remains unchanged from the earlier Strategic Rail Authority national criteria for crowding which, with the exception of CENTRO services before 2007, has been in place nationally since 2002.

The previous Centra standard was based on traditional compartment-style slam door trains with no designed standing space for passengers. These trains have now been replaced with modern sliding door trains.