Great Western Railway Reviews 

I regularly travel on GWR and whenever I try to buy my ticket in advance the web site has "technical issues" 60% of the time.
You go all the way through then get an error message. I am fed up with "please close the page and re-enter".
Guys, just build a site that works, please!

Gotta be a top ten contender for the scummiest company on earth, avoid at all cost.

Absolute shambles. Cancelled my train tonight, but rather than leaving it on the departure boards on their app as cancelled (and giving a reason for the cancellation), they simply disappear it, leaving their passengers to work out what has happened. And all the while, a cheery "there is a good service running" message adorns their clunky, labyrinthine website. It's not a good service when you're cancelling trains.

I hope and pray we finally see the back of First Group as part of the GBR shakeup.

Travelled for a week's holiday between London and Devon (Totnes) having pre-purchased tickets weeks in advance. We had specifically booked a slower but non-stop route to avoid changing trains with our bikes, but on arriving at the departure station learned that our entire route had been cancelled for the day without any notice whatsoever, leaving us to find our own alternative route with 4+ changes and waiting to fight to try to get on multiple trains with space for the bikes (since cycle space reservations no longer useful after the route was shutdown). My wife, usually the calmer of us, was literally in tears and shouting at train staff at one point. I just gave up entirely and suggested we go home and let them pay us compensation for the journey and all of our pre-paid accommodation. But with one final last-ditch effort to get on a train (after ~2 hours in Reading) we managed to get to our intended destination and arrive at our B&B about 5 minutes before it got dark (about 4 hours later than we had planned).

I tried to just put that experience aside then and focus on the holiday, but as the final few days came around I started to dread the return journey.

Sure enough, on the return journey there was further misery: our advance-booked train was cancelled outright, again leaving us to fight for some alternative cycle reservation at the last minute (after they were all already reserved). So again had to give up a non-stop service, face new delays, transfer multiple times, and again fight at every station to try to find space on the trains for our bikes.

Again, this was after we had pre-booked specific trains, and pre-reserved spaces precisely for those same bikes -- GWR canceled literally every single one of those trains on-the-day and thus the reservations were useless.

Then on top of this, the cycle spaces on the GWR trains are a joke: you can fit ONLY a road bike with aluminium rims no deeper than ~20mm. ANYTHING else (mountain bike, e-bike, road bike with 40mm+ rims, etc) will not fit in their hanging space. Even with narrow handlebars (40mm) you can't fit two bikes side-by-side in their hanging configuration, so each "2-bike" space is really only capable of accommodating a single road bicycle. Then they're also typically full of luggage rather than bicycles, even if you've reserved the space. And if you're lucky enough to have the very singular bicycle that the space was designed to fit, you must still have the good luck to not be on a train that is standing room only due to all of their cancelled services to actually be able to manoeuvre your bicycle into that standing position, while the train is moving all over, without knocking fellow passengers in the head / their teeth out as you try to stand the bike up to get it into that space.

So if you don't need to travel with a bicycle, but enjoy trying to re-arrange your travel at the last minute due to constantly cancelled train services, standing up in the corridors and risking being knocked about by others, you might enjoy GWR.

If you do want to travel with a bicycle, forget it -- you are better off just cycling wherever you want to go if there is no other train service available, or just pick some other destination entirely for a holiday.

You could not pay me to take a GWR service again.

Barbarically awful. One toilet, not covid secure and completely packed. Every train was delayed.

My brother had just died I could have done with a minutes break outside of the station with fresh air on a 6 hour journey to
My family. It’s not good enough

After an hours wait on the phone over two weeks ago I went through the refund policy with a lady (I’m partially sighted) who checked that the details were correct and that the relevant photos had been uploaded successfully. I was checking my bank account daily and on Saturday I had an email saying that the photos weren’t good enough! 15 days to be told that and that I have to start the process again!! I tried to call them today and after 1hr 21mins on hold I gave up. I’ve just gone through the process again but will never ever travel with them again or recommend them. I bought a disabled persons railcard too.

Absolutiley horrible service. The train had 1.5h delay until someone noticed us through the speakers there is a delay (well done sherlock). Then, after one station the train has been canceled but no one said something about it and no personnel was on the train to tell me to step off. I nearly remained in the trained going back from the starting point.
On top of that the company does not accept refund application, despite their absolutely unacceptable services.

Of course I realise these are unprecedented times but nevertheless I have been waiting for a refund on my ticket from Barnstable to Bristol for nearly 2 months!! When I applied for it I was told to do certain things which I did I then had an email from them saying my request has been accepted. It was April 13 I requested my refund and still have not had a penny no emails,nothing.I am constantly on the phone to their helpline actually I am on it right now have been on it nearly 45 minutes with the annoying voice saying we will be with you as soon as possible, really not good enough they need more people on these phone lines.By the way when I did go to the website it said refunds for taking longer than normal usually up to 29 days well this is double that I’m really not good enough!! The reason for two stars is usually I find GWR a fantastic company and that makes this even more the more disappointing

Travelled First Class today. All worked as it should. Clean and comfortable carriage. Lovely lady working the trolley this morning. Ticket inspector polite. Good quality refreshments. Travel as it should be.

I rely on first great western trains to get me to work, I pay an absolute fortune for unreliable trains sometimes late for up to an hour. I have had no issues with staff though, they have all been very friendly.

i was treated like a criminal by the ticket inspector when i went to pay for a ticket on the train as i always do from saltash, he fined me £20, im not a train dodger and always pay on the train if i haven't got a ticket beforehand. surely it with in his remit to show some discretion.

won't use service again

Honestly had the loveliest service from a ticket man on the train from Truro to St Austell on the Monday evening. He was so friendly and informative, he was chatting to every single passenger making them smile, fussing over dogs and offering water. He made my small train journey a blessing.

I wish I could give no stars!!! I UK born and bred and the GWR service is the worst train service I HAVE EVER travelled with, EVERYTIME I HAVE TRAVELLED I HAVE BEEN DELAYED FOR OVER AN HOUR, AND CUSTOMER SERVICE IS NON EXISTENT. I pay between £100 and £200(they charge way more for on peak!) for a 2 way ticket between Bristol and London Paddington for stress, delayed, being spoken rudely to by customer services...honestly I am surprised how GWR are still in service, I think if GWR is boycotted it would be a wake up call, from now on I am driving, sod GWR!!!!

Even if you do put in a claim form for compensation for endless disruptions, cancellations and delays they completely ignore your official request. For the excessively exorbitant ticket prices it’s unacceptable. A wholly shambolic, shoddy and substandard ‘service’. I long for the former British Rail days, pre privatisation.

Very expensive, trains should be a the wonderful green means of travel of the future , but due to a monopoly in the region there appears to be little incentive to care for there customers, the watiing rooms are cold and prices go up with nothing given in return

New 1st class was very comfy and the complimentary food was great. Staff great and train was on time. So much than getting in the car.

Thevtrain was delayed by over an hour, being told this was due to an unknown train fault involving the air pressure, I was also informed that we should try and claim compensation. When I applied for the refund of the journey I was told that the records stated the reason for the delay was due to pheasants on the line. This is just a blatant lie... I wonder how often they provide misinformation like this to prevent paying refunds. Follow and share all the social media pages against them to stand against them and their increasing fares.

The Portsmouth Harbour service from Cardiff is overpriced, always late, never enough carriages and unreliable.

How they get away with charging over £6k a year for a service from Cardiff to Bristol is. Beyond me. Once the Severn Bridge becomes free I will be driving to Bristol to save time, money and stress.

I am on train from Swansea to Paddington and there's no refreshments anywhere, even in first class, where you cant get even a cup of water. The guard just says that no catering staff so we have to travel 200 miles with nothing.
We should all complain as it's getting worse every month. We should be compensated. This happens regularly but to not have nothing in first class with the price they charge is just wrong.
The toilets don't close in first class either. You can't close the doors. This service is terrible. I have 2 hrs left on the last train so I can't even change trains which is probably why they done this again. Boycott the trains if you can.