Find it hard to get on a Waterloo train in the morning? Here's why.

A recent report into London's economy has revealed an important insight into life in Wandsworth. The Centre for Cities has published a new report looking at the economy of the central London boroughs. It's packed full of stats and maps which any economist will find interesting. Of particular note is the fact that Wandsworth wards had around 100 fewer businesses in 2011 than they did in 2008, alongside thousands fewer public sector jobs. On the plus side, the number of people employed in the private sector has stayed neutral to positive, and more people have been employed by start-up companies over the three years.

But how does that affect the Earslfield platform crush? Well, one of the most interesting graphs in the report is a comparison of how many people commute in and out of the various boroughs. It seems that Wandsworth has a net outflow of people on a working day - that is, more people leave Wandsworth than arrive. Something that anyone who's looked wistfully at Platform 3 on a Tuesday morning can believe.

Graph (c) Centre for Cities 2013

I'm sure that there are many, many more factors that contribute to the South West Trains squash, but this surely doesn't help. Perhaps it's time to look into the Cycle to Work scheme?