The government has urged rail service providers to do more to ease congestion on their trains.

Transport minister Norman Baker said the authorities are doing all they can to enhance the nation's rail capacity, but private companies need to come up with new ways to reduce the strain on the UK's existing infrastructure.

"Climbing on to a very crowded train is an unpleasant experience and I sympathise with passengers using these services," he remarked.

Mr Baker's comments came after new figures highlighted the most congested trains in England and Wales. 

Unsurprisingly, London is the busiest city, with 977,000 people travelling into the capital on an average weekday in the autumn of 2012. Some 535,000 of these arrived during the morning peak.

With London's population rising all the time, it is crucial that steps are taken to enhance the city's public transport offerings and the government is confident the new Crossrail project - which is slated to open in 2018 - will go some way towards achieving this.