Great Western Railway Reviews 

Requires a negative rating! Absolute joke of a "service". Reliable in being incompetent, late, delayed, not having a clue what's going on. Over 15 years I can't think of a more useless service, yet prices keep going up double digits. Who are these clowns I charge making millions in bonuses? Strip the license, unfit to run a railway let alone a lemonade stall.

I've always been confused as to why Great Western maintains a rail franchise. I've travelled with many of the different UK rail providers and Great Western is always the one that delays / cancels / annoys me.
Yet again today, I sit on a platform because they've cancelled my train. No worries about the cost of the occasion I was travelling for, just the "chance" of getting some of my train ticket refunded. I don't want my ticket refunded, I want you to run the service I (and others) already paid for. Please remove their franchise and let someone with half a brain take over.

Delays and cancellations at Oxford as usual - your appointments will.be missed for the price of tickets this is basically a scam - two carriage trains for London commuters? Not even funny - nowhere to sit down obviously the point is to hit back at the public ( what have they done? ) to rile them up and generally make journeys a misery. Through goes another half empty freightliner goods train. This is the clue - empty containers probably pay more than sweaty commuters who apparently deserve everything they get and more - why???

Shockingly bad experience today. My partner wanted to get a train east from Cornwall. We looked at Camborne but, apparently the ticket office closed far earlier than the required train. We checked the website to ensure that Redruth station ticket office was open, got over there to find it was closed despite their website saying differently. No problem they provide a ticket machine. Only that does not have a facility to used a senior railcard which would have increased the fare by an exorbitant amount. So we race all the way to Penzance just in time to miss her train. A long (over an hour) wait for there next one. To cap it all the people who run the inadequate and tiny station car park at Redruth charged me £4.50 for the very short time it took to find out that First Great Western cannot be bothered to open their ticket office despite their website saying otherwise.

I have used this train company over the last 12 months or so each week to commute into London Paddington from Bristol Temple Meads. I can honestly say without exaggeration that I can count on one hand the number of times it’s actually got to the destination at the scheduled time. Always some kind of problem or the train slows down without explanation. Just so poor on so many levels and then charged a ridiculous amount to really rub your nose in it. Shambolic.

Just when you think that our privatised railway can't get any worse, you make the mistake of buying a ticket on Great Western.

This is a company that doesn't even bother to try anymore. They operate a monopoly on routes to the South West, you don't have a choice. It is either use them or drive.

Most of their long distance routes are in excess of four hours (when they actually run to time) HOw can they not make a provision for food and drink on these trains.

I boarded my train to London at Exeter and was immediatly told my the train manager that there was no catering on this train. He was completly indifferent about this.

I emailed "customer service" via their website and they simply couldn't give a toss. Their excuse if it was one was that sometimes they found it difficult to load supplies onto the train.

Great Western can behave this way because they know that they will face no sanctions, there is nothing you can do about it.

I have Been To London Stratford 7 Times Recently What A Job With Travel Only 2 Times Went As Planned Missed 2 Appointment It Is Not Easy To Compleat Refund On Internet If You Are An Older Person. Trains Late For Over 1 Hour Waiting For Train DriversOver 15 Minutes Waiting For Catering Staff 20 Min Late. Trains Canceled 1 Train So Full People Were Standing In The Toilets So Hard Luck If You Needed To Use Toilet Had A Seat Booked But Couldent Get To It. THIS IS NOT EXCEPTABLE. 😭🙄😖😩 26th Feb. And Other Dates When Traveling.

Beware dropping off at Cheltenham Spa. GWR train is late and APCOA hit you for a £100. Is that reclaimable as delay in drop off was caused by delay of GWR train?

I cannot understand how this service is allowed to exist and persist. Any other third world country service(and I speak from experience) is ten times better. Not only it is ridiculously overpriced, but the service is non existent and the frequent delays and cancellations make passengers life impossible. I would also like to mention the young lady at Gatwick airport on the 9th of January 2024 who stupidly made me miss my train home. If providing better service is so impossible for you, have the decency to at least provide polite and intelligent personnel. Thank you for nothing.

Mike at Taunton railway station is superb; he is always friendly, polite, efficient and dedicated to simply outstanding customer service.

I'm totally fed up with their services. The ticket officers from London Paddington to Oxford are a disgrace, extremely rude enjoying giving shows on trains, and they always want to take money from you for one reason or another. They cancel services all the time, super unreliable. Their customer service is a joke as well

DREADFUL RUBBISH UNRELIABLE SERVICE! Simply wanted to travel from neath to evessham; train cancelled at hereford, had to get a taxi the rest of the way, costing me 130£! NEVER AGAIN WILL i USE THIS PATHETIC POOR EXCUSE OF A SO CALLED TRANSPORT SERVICE!!

Wonderful as always. There’s something refreshingly simple about the way GWR runs it’s trains, particularly between South Wales and London. Unlike others (Crosscountry) it has commissioned new trains, runs seven or even carriages and when overcrowded (rare) declassifies First. So unusual is this approach the stepping into one of their trains can be a little jarring. Still, always a great experience

no refund and no ticket, I bought a season pass for my son almost two month ago, nothing received and no refund, communication is very slow, disappointed deeply.

Previous train cancelled train travelling on only half carriages actually came.Staff coped magnificently,apparently this is the norm.Hardly the experience to encourage travel to Cardiff

I do wish they would put someone in charge with common sense and the brains they should have been born with! Must be all that sitting on there overpaid backsides their brains have obviously slipped down to their laps. Surely if one of your trains is late but there is still sufficient time to get travellers to their connection you would have the procedures in place so the drivers don't take over 20 minutes to change over they should be ready and waiting. Myself and several other customers missed their connection today by a couple of minutes today when the first train was 11 minutes late but we originally had a 32 minute wait so should still have had 21 minutes till our objection pathetic effort from an equally pathetic company. Make the lazy overstuffed executives travel on their trains and not in first class either and see changes put in place. This company like to many others are parasites who charge the earth for a diabolical service!!!

Firstly no star rating would be too high. Travellling to Truro from London Paddington on the 10.03 to Truro on the 17/09/2023. Arrived at Paddington around 9.50. No sign of the train on platform indicator board. Asked one of the station staff, clueless, and he pointed towards information desk and we asked another staff member, clueless, and he got on his walkie talkie and then mumbled platform two. Time was getting on and we had to run. Both of pension age and with luggage. We had booked seats in coach C. As we went to board we could barely get on as there were passengers and luggage everywhere. We found our seats and found a youngish family occupying our seats and they cheerfully told us that seat reservations had been cancelled which was confirmed by others. None of this family offered to at least let my wife sit down but as long as they were nice and comfortable that is all that matters.
Finally some passengers piled lots of luggage onto one seat so my wife could sit down with her legs in the aisle. Train pulled away and then announced there would be no food or drinks served as if anybody could move up and down the train anyway as it was beyond rammed. Then an announcement came apologizing for the mayhem stating that a ten coach train had been ordered but only five coaches turned up and the choice was either to run with five or cancel. To cancel would only have led to even greater mayhem I suppose. The reason the train was not advertised at Paddington and other station on route was that they did not want people to get on but surprisingly people are not stupid and they will find out which platform the train they are booked on is going from like us.
The main guard on the train was good and eventually sorted out a seat for my wife in another coach so we never saw each other for most of the journey. I do not know what the health and safety precautions are on a train but there was far too much luggage and this was piled everywhere blocking aisles and seats, there was no clear pathway down the aisles, people were standing everywhere including the toilets. Could go on. Total carnage

You need a no-star rating.
4th attempt to get to Cornwall due to strikes after 5 months. Last trip, 11 hours on train without arriving at destination. Had to return as it cancelled, with only half- compensation. This trip arrived an hour late, returning with part coach journey. Cars removed from trip, people standing everywhere all the way back , no service in first class for 2 hours, no catering for rest of train, lavatory broken.
They need to lose license. Award to Swiss company. They should be drummed out.

The trains were clean and on time. The host Abbi on the train from Bristol Temple Meads to Paddington on Saturday 20th May was the most helpful, friendly and happy host I have ever come across. The customer service she provides is outstanding!

The GWR 16.30 from Oxford to Banbury.

It was full and standing. The train was well maintained and the seats are comfortable. The interior decor is a bit too gloomy for me. They need to add another carriage.