Commuter with £6,000 railcard sits in cleaning cupboard on journey home as there are no seats

The unnamed city worker said he found the cabin after giving up trying to sit in the packed carriage

Abellio Greater Anglia said they are increasing the capacity on the service (Getty Images)

A commuter has been forced to sit in the cleaning cupboard on his daily train journey into London - despite paying £6,000 for an annual train ticket.

The City worker - who does not want to be named - struggles to get a place to sit during his return journey from London Liverpool Street station to Ipswich and has resorted to sitting in the cleaning cupboard with the mops and brooms.

He told the East Anglian Times: “I can usually get an official seat on the way in during the morning rush hour, but in the evening the train I catch, the 6.30, is usually so full there’s no space.

“I found this some time ago and I use it quite often. No one seems to mind but it isn’t great.”

He thought he has an easier commute than many of his colleagues,saying: “Those who come from the south have to catch a bus, a train and then the Tube. They think it’s luxury that I only have to catch the train.”

A spokesman for the train operator Abellio Greater Anglia said the cupboard was supposed to be out of boards to passengers as it contained the intercom for the senior conductor.

He defended the overcrowding, saying the rolling stock was undergoing a refurbishment, where 24 first class seats would be replaced by 54 standard-class seats - significantly improving capacity.

He said: “Two of the seven vehicles of this type operating have already been converted and on completion of the programme later this year, this will provide over 600,000 more standard seats a year (or 2,500 more seats a day) on our intercity services.”

Ispwich MP Ben Gummer said: “This shows exactly why we need to see hundreds of millions of pounds invested in new rolling stock and new track. It is not right that people who pay a large amount."