Great Western Railway Anmeldelser 2 747

A timely reminder why I never use trains.

Dirty, smelly train. Couldn’t get my seat as they had over booked, couldn’t use the toilet as the aisles were full, had to sit with my suitcase on my lap as there was no where else to store it. Absolute money grabbing swines, no shits given about their customers as long as they are churning people on and off the train.

Maybe try and take some tips from Japan on how to run an efficient service.

Up go the prices and worse and worse gets the service. The trains themselves are worn out, seat padding totally crumbled so you sotting on the metal framework. Carpets stained with nasty stuff, air condition weak, no buffets, one trolley for the whole train. It took them from Paddington to Plymouth to provide the chance to buy a bottle of water. GWR is a disgrace. Some good news for consumers is that they are now charging so much,you can fly or rent a car for the same price. So it goodbye from me for GWR. You trains are disgusting, your ticket prices are disgusting and your services in late and over crowded.

This is horrific, currently on the 11.44 from Newport th Bath. It's rammed - standing room only. People drinking and it's so hot. More people trying to get on as we get to the smaller stations before Bristol.

Never again will I chose the train. We could have driven to Bath from Newport within an hour. It would have been cheaper and more comfortable. However decided to give the trains a try, what a mistake.

Gonna arrive in Bath in about 25mins sweating, aching legs & back and feeling really shit & pissed off.

Why does the scene from 'Schindler's List' stick in my heard when when he walks up and down the train platform spraying water into the carriages to cool down the poor people inside.

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am extremely disappointed and frustrated with the appalling experience I had while travelling from Newquay to Paddington.

The train delay started at 20 minutes and kept increasing until it reached a completely unacceptable 1 hour and 20 minutes. This is not a minor inconvenience—it shows a clear lack of reliability and poor management. What made matters worse was the complete absence of proper communication or accountability during this time.

We had been at the station since 10:45 PM, and to add to the situation, there were absolutely no waiting rooms or basic facilities available. Being left stranded late at night in freezing conditions without any shelter is not just inconvenient, it is outright unacceptable and reflects a serious disregard for passenger comfort and safety.

This entire experience was handled poorly from start to finish. Delays can happen, but the way this situation was managed is simply not acceptable. I expect a clear explanation for what caused such a delay and why passengers were left without even the most basic provisions.

I would also strongly urge you to review your services and take responsibility for the inconvenience caused. I expect appropriate compensation for this experience.

This level of service is extremely disappointing and does not meet even basic expectations.

trains are always late and incredibly unreliable they constantly say their trains are understaffed and that's why they can't run but they have atleast 1 ticket inspector per carriage on my train? they have a terrible refund policy for when they cancel my train and I can no longer use it and their delay repay is even worse

Huge shoutout to the GWR Lost Property team! They managed to find my lost phone and had it delivered back to me in perfect condition. The process was easy to follow and the staff were incredibly helpful throughout. I’m so grateful to have it back—excellent service that really goes the extra mile! Nigel at Bristol Lost Property and The Station Assistant at Cheltenham Spa were exceptionally helpful. Thank you all.

Train replacement bus took me to the next train station which was closed, so i was stranded. had to pay for uber. These clowns are protected and reviews like this don't do anything

Little point in this review but I want to get this off my chest. I'm in a train from Westbury to Southampton Central. The leg room is so crazily tiny, I may as well stand. The guy opposite me is struggling too. What sort of inconsiderate idiot, probably a dwarf who thinks everyone else has short legs, designed carriages like this? I have several disabilities but not enough to warrant taking up a disabled space. Of course, GWR are very aware of this but won't consider stripping the carriages and fitting seats with much larger gaps. I honestly don't think I should be paying full price for this experience. It's an hour's journey that my body will suffer from for days to come. I used to pay the crazy price to do my Littlehampton to Taunton trips via London, but thought I'd try the cheaper route instead. It's been fine until getting on this train. GWR have the manolopy of course so won't make any effort to improve things. This is serious, it's not a joke. I have tumours in my head and neck that cause me various issues and I'm really suffering thanks to small minded people who don't consider everyone even designing carriages. I bet you'd move heaven and earth to cater for trans people though, right? As for first class on the Paddington to Taunton route, last time I did that I was served one drink and that was it. The choice of snacks were a joke too. One flavour of crisps. No sandwiches, no chance of a hot roll, one choice of tiny cake that's some odd spicy flavour that's uneatable. A flapjack that's about 3cm square and spicy? Yuk. If I could choose another way to travel, I would.

Another train cancelled and the next one was 16 minutes late. It’s so frustrating, rarely on time.

Awful. Delay repay system is automated and flawed. The appeal process is a joke and makes it impossible to make any corrections or clarifications. Just useless

I have used their delay repay service 3 times, all 3 times they tried to pay me less than they were supposed to. I only use the trains once a week, so I can’t imagine how frustrating this would be if I used them every day.

I then had to chase their team for the correct amount each time, and each time I received nonsensical responses, such as:

‘After investigating these matters further, I can see that our Delay Repay team assumed that you took the 17:25 train going from [x] to [x], with a scheduled arrival time of 17:38.’

The worst part of that sentence isn’t even that they disregarded the times I put in on claim, but that they were referencing a train that was cancelled that day - probably why they tried to pull it off as if it arrived on time and wasn’t late at all.

All trains on either side of the cancelled one were severely delayed, due to their staff being stuck at another station and us waiting on them, so I imagine they had many, many claims that day.

Extremely dishonest and corrupt service, watch out if you ever put in a claim.

I was mistreated by GWR male staff.

their website messed up and chared me multiple times for a ticket.
they then expect ME to pay them a fee for the privalage?
shocking customer service.

Packed Cheltenham train from Reading through Didcot stalled at Swindon 'waiting for the replacement train manager' who was said to be 15mins away on the M4!!! For god's sake can't they get their staff to their stations by train or are thise just too unreliable??!!

We used GWR Reading to Worcester Shrub Hill Station last night on the way home from a long flight to London Heathrow. The Train Manager, Guy, was fabulous and welcomed us aboard and was really welcoming to my super tired son. Made a very long journey bearable-highly recommended!🤩

The driver on the 9.28 from Cardiff to Portsmouth Harbour on 8th April 2026 was such a lovely man. The train arrived early, about 10 minutes, there was no announcement to say which train it was and no indication on the board it had arrived. The driver opened his window to tell us so we could start getting on instead of just standing on the platform wondering if it was our train.

Another truly useless performance by GWR. In 2026, why the UK rail network remains permanently at the mercy of points failures is a mystery. GWR’s relentless inability to manage their service around delays is breathtaking. No urgency, no apparent attempt to get everyone on board a train and away from the station as quickly as possible. Trains due to leave after ours leaving long before it. Pathetic updates telling us it will be “just another five minutes later”, when everyone knows that’s a lie. Then we sit outside of Oxford, a station far too small for the number of passengers it handles, because there were no platforms free. Then, a GWR special, the “we’re going to sit on the platform, pointlessly, for more than five minutes, long after everyone has got off or on the train.” No other train company does this. The contempt GWR appear to have for their customers knows no boundaries. But we get a £4 refund for a service more than an hour late for what should be a 90 minute journey. What a world.

The new ticketing system is a nightmare for those of us who do not have modern smartphones. The mobile app is not compatible with older phones and you cant get your ticket, the one you've already paid for, without the app unless you pay a ridiculously large fee for delivery or go to the station to collect it. Email delivery is no longer an option.
The young lady on customer "service" was pleasant and as helpful as she could be but the manager refused to speak to me (Isn't that his job?). They have promised to send me new tickets by email but it took over half an hour on the phone, mostly listening to awful music, (carefully selected to make you give up?) and I still have to wait another few hours. Good job I'm not about to travel. I shall drive in future! Does anybody care? I doubt it.

Shortly after writing this (although probably not prompted by it) I received a phone call from a very helpful lady told me they were unable to send a pdf as planned because my journey included another rail company but she showed me how to download and print my original tickets from the web site - NOT the app - so all ended well eventually. I've upgraded from one to two stars. I've got my tickets but it really shouldn't be that difficult.

important commuter trains to London area regularly cancelled, disputing work for thousands of people in the south. Rush hour trains are always so packed full that many people have to stand in doorways for their journeys, despite paying often over £40 for a day ticket. Staff are very uninterested in helping and the refund system is a scam. They have no real customer support service and clearly don't care about everyone despising them as they have a monopoly.

We were in First Class and i am disabled and Peter the Customer Host on the 19:36 from paddington, helped me a lot with boarding and my experience and overall gave me amazing customer service and delivered with his strong irish smile as he must do to everyone so thank you very much for him and GWR