It has been labelled the most overcrowded train in Britain, but surely the 07.59 Durham to Newcastle couldn't be that bad, could it? Olivia Richwald finds out.

I'VE ridden some vile trains. There was the 26-hour slugger the length of China, where the toilet was a hole onto the tracks; a Thai overnighter that got stranded outside Bangkok for five hours. Not forgetting a time riding London's District Line every weekday morning.

None were pleasant experiences, so taking the 07.59 Durham to Newcastle would surely be an easy ride.

This service, run by TransPennine Express, was named as the most overcrowded in the country last week by campaign group Transport 2000. In December, it was 88 per cent over capacity. In January, a third carriage was added.

I cheated by starting in Darlington. The train was 17 minutes late, but it was comfortably empty.

"It's a bit of a non-story isn't it?" said a pinstripe-suited young bank manager in the vestibule, "it's not that bad."

He got off at Durham.

Then the hordes got on.

When I spotted the trolley man hunkering down in the niche next to the toilet, that should have been the clue it was going to get cosy.

At least 20 people crammed into the door nearest me. Every seat was taken, people filled the aisles and the vestibules were rammed full.

My remit for this article was to chat to passengers, but it was impossible to start a professional conversation while squashed against a stranger.

I could have told them I was a journalist just on for the ride, but it wouldn't have gone down well, so I pretended to be a commuter.

A young woman whose newspaper I almost knocked out of her hand, said: "It's this bad because it's late. The next one was late as well. So there's a few extra this morning."

An older woman in a purple fleece, added: "It's not nice, but it's a short journey, so it could be worse."

A middle-aged man said: "It's worse when its been raining, or it's really hot."

It was a 20-minute ride from Durham to Newcastle, interrupted by a stop at Chester-le-Street that only added to the overcrowding.

In the end, I found my way to the join between two carriages. It was colder and swayed from side to side, but there was at least room to breathe.

A few years ago as a daily Tube commuter, I mastered the art of ignoring the lumps and bumps of my neighbours' bodies as they pressed into my own.

Look up, look down, read the adverts, just don't make eye contact. And breathe through your mouth to avoid the body odour.

The 07.59 (or the 08.16 if you count the delay) wasn't that bad. In London, commuters physically shove you forward into the train until there is no need to hold on to stand up.

This was the busiest train I had been on since leaving the Capital, but all things considered, the people were friendlier, the train cleaner, the journey shorter and I would rather ride it every day than attempt to board the District Line in Fulham at 8am on a Monday to Friday ever again.

l Sardine Man, from environmental transport group Transport 2000, will visit Durham today as part of a national tour of the most overcrowded train journeys in England and Wales. His blog can be read at www.sardine man.org.uk