Transport giant First has pledged to look at whether it can provide yet more trains and buses in Bath this weekend after long queues for both at the start of the city's Christmas Market.
At one point on Saturday, passengers had to be stopped from entering Bath Spa railway station, with queues stretching along Dorchester Street, while not far away, hundreds more people queued for park and ride buses.
Today First's bus arm revealed that the number of people using its park and ride buses in Bath on Saturday was virtually double the total for the previous Saturday, as the market, payday and a Bath Rugby clash with Exeter filled the city centre.
The firm has already increased the frequency of park and ride buses and extended the hours of their operation for Christmas, but said it would look again at its resources.
A spokeswoman said: "Saturday was an incredibly busy day on the roads in Bath. We carried almost double the amount of people, compared to the previous weekend, on the park and ride service, while many of our other services were delayed by the increased traffic congestion in the city. While we believe that the combination of factors which caused Bath to be so busy last Saturday ie the start of the Christmas Market, the rugby and the fact many people had just been paid may be unique and therefore not repeated, we will be looking at what we can do to increase the capacity of our services for the remaining shopping weekends in the run-up to Christmas."
Rail operator First Great Western is also looking at whether it can further boost the number of carriages on trains through Bath this weekend.
Although FGW had laid on enough extra carriages to increase overall capacity throughout the day by 2,000 seats on Saturday, its ability to do more was compromised by the need to provide additional space on trains to Wales because of the Wales-Australia rugby match and Cardiff City's home game with Arsenal.
At one point, passengers were stopped from entering the station to allow crowds already on platforms and the concourse to catch their trains and free up some space.
The station had also seen scenes of chaos last Tuesday evening when services had been delayed or cancelled by signalling problems.
The long queues for buses and trains came on a day which brought nearly 150 coachloads of visitors to the city for the first Saturday of the market.
A spokesman for FGW said: "The first weekend of the ever-popular Bath Christmas Market and the Bath game against Exeter meant demand was always going to be high."
He added: "Customers had been advised to leave extra time for their journeys and that they may not be able to board the first train available.
"Clearly safety is paramount and we will have to have people queuing up outside the station at times to allow safe access to trains."
Staff from across the firm will be helping to marshal passengers at busy times over the Christmas period.
The spokesman said the fact that there were fewer competing events this coming weekend should mean the firm was better placed to raise capacity again.
Ironically, the station has just won the title of international railway station of the year.
Roads were clogged for much of the day, with people trying to get into Bath from the north held up by the slow movement of an abnormal load at times.
Meanwhile, the Green Party in the south west has launched an electronic petition to get the franchise for the services currently provided by FGW taken into public control.
Bath spokesman Jon Lucas said: "Those of us who rely on First Great Western's train services in Bath will hardly be surprised to hear that the idea of taking our railways back into public ownership has never been more popular. Since privatisation, the cost of train travel has risen by 23 per cent in real terms and the drain on the public purse has more than doubled. Passengers have to put up with some of the highest fares in Europe and for many years have put up with overcrowded trains and unreliable services."
The party wants the franchise returned to public ownership when the current contract expires in two years' time, saying this could save taxpayers more than £1 billion a year and lead to lower fares and better services.
The petition is at http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/56244.
