PASSENGERS and train operators have renewed calls for more carriages to ease overcrowding after an MPs' report warned the crush on commuter services is going to get worse.

The Parliamentary report published yesterday said the Department for Transport would miss all the relevant targets for increasing the number of passenger places on trains by March 2014 – despite passengers paying more for tickets.

In June, First Great Western confirmed to the Evening Post that 12 new trains destined for the West Country had been binned after the DfT was told to slash its budget.

And last night a spokesman said passengers numbers in the Bristol area were rising faster than the company can cater for.

He said: "We understand the current economic climate makes things difficult. We are doing all we can but that can only help increase capacity in the short-term. Without extra trains (which are allocated centrally by the Government) it is very difficult to meet long-term increased capacity."

Passengers in the Bristol area are used to overcrowding on trains from Bristol to Filton Abbey Wood, Bath, stations in North Somerset and Gloucester.

On the 5.41pm train to Abbey Wood from Temple Meads last night, Liz Ramone, 21, from St George, said: "At this time of night I expect to be standing."

Travelling in the opposite direction, Lieutenant Colonel Ian Parsons, 49, from Bath said: "The 7.25am train is standing room only. I usually get the 5.09pm and when it gets to Bristol it is jam-packed and lots of people are standing."

Lt Col Parsons said he believed the service was reasonable but was concerned by the lack of spending to tackle overcrowding.

"It runs contrary to the Government's initiative to get people onto public transport and off the road," he said.

The report from the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee said the DfT's knowledge of how many people use which parts of the rail network and when was "inadequate and sketchy" and the current round of planning had relied heavily on buying extra carriages and extending platforms to accommodate longer trains, "but this approach cannot go on indefinitely".

The MPs said alternatives had to be found, including more use of smart ticketing systems such as Oyster cards used by London commuters and demand management to reduce the inefficiencies of overcrowding in peak hours and underused rolling stock at other times."

The committee's chairman, Margaret Hodge, said: "This committee is concerned that, for commuters, the already unacceptable levels of overcrowding will get worse and ever more intolerable.

"At present there is no incentive for the rail industry to supply extra capacity without additional public subsidy."

Transport Secretary Philip Hammond said: "We have taken the tough decision to continue investing in the capacity of our railways to improve passenger experience, but have had to ask passengers to accept a higher level of rail fare increases in 2012-15 to support this. That decision means we will be able to unveil details of our plans to reduce overcrowding in the coming weeks."

Transport pressure group the Campaign for Better Transport said it was "unacceptable" that attempts to tackle overcrowding were failing and that passengers would wonder why they should have to pay more for a worse service.

South West representative for the CBT David Redgewell told the Post: "First Great Western are doing a good job with what they have got now but we need more rolling stock.

"There's no doubt we need more capacity. The Public Accounts Committee is absolutely right."