Martin Lewis rail rant leads to apology

Lewis said other passengers had urged him to post about the conditions

East Midlands Railway has apologised to broadcaster Martin Lewis after he complained about his overcrowded train on social media.

The consumer affairs expert took to X, formerly Twitter, to describe conditions on the London to Sheffield service on Monday afternoon.

He said all seats and standing spaces were taken and there was only one working toilet.

East Midlands Railway said network upgrades had led to extra passengers.

Lewis, known as the Money Saving Expert, said other people on the train had urged him to speak out about the crammed carriages.

East Midlands Railway has pledged to learn from the reported problems

He posted: "Dear @EastMidRailway this train (Ldn-Sheffield) is disgraceful.

"Every seat taken, every standing space taken, scores sitting in mid train corridors so I guess 500 people on it and only one working toilet at one end, so people must crawl over each 100s to reach it.

"It's degrading, like something from the 19th Century."

East Midlands Railway replied to his comment, saying: "We are really sorry about your experience this afternoon.

"Vital infrastructure upgrades on the East Coast Mainline have resulted in a very large number of customers trying to travel with us rather than using the available rail replacement bus connections.

"We have strengthened services as much as possible and increased the number of staff to help manage this situation but clearly it has not worked as well as we would have liked, and we will work hard with the wider industry to learn from this."

Lewis later posted again to apologise for describing the service as "19th Century", acknowledging it had been pointed out that trains back then were "efficient, on time and luxury".