Great Western Railway Reviews 

I have had several experiences with Great Western Railways that have been inconvenient, disappointing and frustrating. To keep from boring you to death, here is a summary:

1. Ticket prices

It's no wonder the roads are traffic-logged and the ice caps are melting when it costs significantly less to fly across Europe in than it takes to travel from London to Truro by rail. Ticket prices keep rising while service appears to stay the same. The south west has the oldest rolling stock in europe, so why are we paying some of the highest prices?

2. Journey Service

One Easter I payed £135 return to Truro from Paddington, it wasn't even peak hour and I was forced to sit on the floor for 4 hours as this price didn't even include a reserved seat.

People with children were struggling to get off the train with their little ones in time as it was so crammed. It was absolute chaos. Aside from this, not just one but both journeys were delayed by 30 minutes each way!

3. Customer Service

GWR has a service whereby if you would like to change your ticket, you frustratingly have to cancel your existing ticket online then order a new one. This used to be relatively straightforward but now they ask you to print off a form and physically post it in, even if your tickets were never collected.

I have been waiting for a refund of £100 since September (four months ago, yep) as they mysteriously never received my first form, so I had to post it in for a second time.

I've rang about three times since and they keep telling me that there is a 'backlog of about a month'. When we're paying such incredible amounts for basic tickets, how can they not afford to pay adequate numbers of staff to process this 'backlog'? I recently received a refund for a flight from Thomson in 3 days, why should it take GWR four months?

My advice is, if you have access to a car, drive.

For 8 weeks I have been trying to recover a refund for an unused ticket returned to GWR sent to the address on the website...which was so unlikely I checked first that it would arrive, as it was a general freepost and no postcode.

Of course, 8'weeks on I discover that mine.along with many others sent during a transition of offices, got lost. Instead of admitting it and paying up, ( who else would bother the make 12 phone calls) it took an email t Mark Hopwood MD to get and response at all and now I have been asked for proof of purchase so have sent my MasterCard statement.

They laughingly call this customer service. Clearly they think people have nothing better to do than to chase for a valid refund. I suspect many will have given up and added to the already swollen coffers of this company.

It is totally unacceptable and the Rail comapnies need to sit up and take notice of customer dissatisfaction . Their reputation is disgusting and is it hard to see what the can do to reverse the trend, even if they try. They could start with their attitude and start believing customers when the ask for a refund of a valid d claim and not treat them like liars.

Today I had no ticket after my monthly pass had just run out....
After queuing to get a ticket at an understaffed station (only one of two ticket booths were open) my train arrived and I jumped on to go to work (without purchasing a ticket). I was hoping a ticket inspector / conductor would allow me to purchase a ticket on the train, but as the train was one carriage down it was so packed that no conductor could move through.

Arriving at Bristol Temple Meads, I then had to wait in a very long queue of people (most likely going through the same problem as I) to purchase a ticket before going through the exit barrier.

And the member of FGW staff who served me had the cheek to ask me why I hadn't bought my ticket. As though I was some criminal thief robbing FGW of their obscene profits, a daily commute at a time. As though I was wasting their time to service me a ticket!!!!! What is wrong with this company??? Old trains, too packed, never on time, never compensate for their errors, and treats its commuters like scum.

I tire of the daily poor customer service that FGW offer. My vote will always aim to rid private rail companies like this from public service.

Trains ALWAYS delayed, dirty, ridiculously overpriced, staff are rude and incompetent. I've been on trains in rural India with better service. First don't care about your experience because they know that most ppl have no other option for public transport, they have no competition so they dont care. Ridiculous.

It costs 100quid to get from Bristol to Leeds. But it only costs about 60quid to get from Bristol to Manchester. Then Manchester to Leeds an extra 10quid. HOW does that work? Why is it cheaper for me to take MORE trains. Simple- they have train fare algorithms to RIP YOU OFF as much as possible.

Good luck getting to your reserved seat as well, the dumb staff dont get the concept of letting all people with reserved seats get on the train first so have fun squeezed against some stranger for hours. Oh and the toilets are always broken. The food service?- what do you expect- overpriced again. Even on the platform expect to pay £2+ for a bottle of water.

Disgraceful, privatisation at its finest

I have commuted on this train every sunday at least 1830 from newton abbott standing up amongst luggage in the aisles. It is always an unsafe and uncomfortable. You make plenty of profit every year to put on more trains. Please do so. Your service provision is inadequate.

I had a ticket from Plymouth to London for 4pm the next day. I actually went in station in person to enquire about options, as my schedule has changed and I preferred an earlier train. The ticket cost 31 pounds. The new ticket cost 50+ (??still off peak). And there was a 10 pnd "service charge". (What's that? I don't get laid that in an hour!).

Changing ticket 24 hours in advance? 34 pounds. .....
Appalling

If you are going to use GWR to get from Reading to Gatwick Beware !

I use First Great Western from time to time to travel from Gatwick to Oxford via Reading. Like all services, it has its problems, but this lot has a pretty disgraceful way of getting round the running of late trains.

If the train to Reading is late, they will turn it back at Redhill. They may tell customers at Gatwick, they may not. So if you're at Gatwick, check the true situation if the service doesn't appear on the destination board. Arrivals and Departures at Redhill using nationalrail.com should give you what you need. You can get a local train to Redhill to link up, irritating though that is.

It's rather worse the other way round. If the train to Gatwick is late, they will turn it back at Redhill and bounce customers, often with heavy luggage, unceremoniously off the train. To get to Gatwick they then have to negotiate two sets of steep steps in Redhill station or try their luck with the lifts, which don't always work, and then wait for a commuter train from London on another platform to complete the journey, The First GWR driver will tell you there are plenty of trains. No, but there are some.

This is a toy town service with loads of level crossings and other things to go wrong along the route. And, to put it bluntly, this lot don't give a damn about their airport customers. Find another route if you can. Otherwise, make sure you can carry your luggage up and down stairs and add an extra forty minutes to your planned travel time - just in case a pig runs across the line.

(I've also put this review on the Trustpilot space for GWR's new website)

Customer service does not exist. You never get an answer from them. Or if you get anything you get contradicting information.
Air conditioning on trains is almost non existent.
They lock windows so passengers have to travel on a sauna and standing up as all services are overcrowded.

I've used the train just a few times and none of them have gone smoothly. I would look up the train times get to the station and they will say it's not running and you have to get a bus without even updating it on the Internet. Prices are way to high and when you call customer service or anyone from their company your welcomes with extremely rude service and spoken to as of your an idiot. They're not understanding and don't listen to the issue at hand they will just repeat the same old cr*p over and over again. I wouldn't recommend using this service to anyone.

For few years I'm using them to travel to work - they prices are soaring but the service go straight downhill!! Very Rude drivers, and the buses are always late - I moved recently (2 months) to the area served by hoppa bus service of FGW and I wasn't able to get the bus on time ever - They are NEVER on time.... on top of this, it is not possible to get a return ticket, but instead I have to buy expensive day ticket for nearly a £5 where I am only traveling 4 miles... I would not say anything but every day I have to wait between 15-45minutes from the scheduled time. How can they charge such a horrendous price for such an unreliable and rude service??? I recommend finding another source of transportation.....

Actually, the website's pretty good, but for some reason I almost NEVER get what I've asked for when I get to the train (quiet carriage, facing forward, table seat? Pot luck!).....also, very inflexible if you need to change your travel plans. On a few occasions I've been early enough to catch an earlier train - go to the ticket office and invariably it's "buy another ticket".....fair enough when it's a peak time train, but with no allowance made for the ticket I already paid for? Seems unfair.