A lot of TOCs seem to have the same problem at the moment of too often short forming services while they wait for new rolling stock. Cross Country, Northern, West Midlands Trains, TransPennine Express, East Midlands Railway to name a few. On social media their stock response is a variance of "We have ageing rolling stock, we're waiting on new carriages/trains to roll out" while customers complain on a daily basis about overcrowding.
I can understand this with a TOC here and there, but who has been asleep at the wheel for this to be the case on so many different services? You've got Northern still using pacers into the next decade, the huge demand for Manchester-Leeds TPEX express services always overcrowded because they haven't got enough carriages (and the Scottish services). Cross Country never having enough carriages, ever.
There's more of a demand for train services than ever, but fewer carriages and rolling stock to actually get them a regular seat.
I can understand this with a TOC here and there, but who has been asleep at the wheel for this to be the case on so many different services? You've got Northern still using pacers into the next decade, the huge demand for Manchester-Leeds TPEX express services always overcrowded because they haven't got enough carriages (and the Scottish services). Cross Country never having enough carriages, ever.
There's more of a demand for train services than ever, but fewer carriages and rolling stock to actually get them a regular seat.