Thameslink Reviews 

If there were any alternative options to get me from Brighton to London Bridge direct, I would take it. Trains are consistently delayed or cancelled. When they're not, surrounding cancellations cause the trains to be overfilled. Whilst this is not necessarily always the fault of Thameslink as an operator, the price of an anytime ticket (which I book to work around the inconsistency) does not account for the unreliability. The reclaim schemes are seemingly intentionally slow and unappealing. The Wi-Fi fails to work more often than not. As a commuter, I have to add an hour to each journey hour journey time to account for failures. I only use this route as there is no other option.

Cons: Constant delays and cancellations. This month alone, I’ve been delayed 16 times by at least 15 minutes, including seven cancellations, and on one occasion I had to take a taxi for part of the journey just to get home.

Some of the explanations given for disruption are particularly frustrating: a train delayed because the previous service was delayed, cancellations because too many trains require servicing, or the driver hasn't turned up. When these problems happen repeatedly, they stop feeling like exceptional circumstances and start looking like basic operational failures.

Thameslink generally pays Delay Repay compensation when it is due, but claiming it repeatedly takes considerable time and effort. Fares are already extremely high and continue to rise, which is difficult to justify when the reliability of the service is so poor.

There are also frequent engineering works and replacement buses, sometimes significantly increasing journey times while passengers continue paying the same fares. Given how regularly services are subsequently disrupted by train or infrastructure faults, it is reasonable to question why passengers are seeing so little improvement.

Ticketing staff on the train are rude and aggressive, which is complemented by the faulty station gates that don't reliably read your card when tapping in.

Pros: The trains themselves are generally in acceptable condition. They are not particularly clean or comfortable, but they are better than some other rail and Underground services.

Services on my route are also frequent, and when everything actually runs to timetable, Thameslink provides a convenient way of getting into London.

Overall

A miserable, patience-testing and increasingly unreliable service at a very high cost to passengers. The sheer frequency of delays and cancellations makes commuting far more stressful than it should be.

Thameslink often appears more effective at enforcing fares than ensuring the service passengers have paid for actually operates reliably.

Their motto might as well be: “Pay now, and maybe we’ll get you there.”

Have tried seversl times to get delay repay and have been refused each time. They deliberately make the online form difficult to use. Disgusting useless company. Nationalisation will be a blessing

Terrible service, I don't think a week goes by with out 3-5 separate delays, often with staff disappearing as soon as significant delays occur.
This is coupled with aggressive ticket inspectors, a complicated ticketing system and super expensive.

Cancelled trains, misleading info in billboards, the most uncomfortable trains ever put in operation. The worst no doubt. This is not just one day, it happens all the time.

Disgusting railway. Costs £2 less to change existing already paid for tickets off peak to off peak by 30 minutes, than buying 2 new tickets. Profiteering. Hope whoever makes these greedy corporate decisions which treat their customers like a bunch of walking ATMs will eventually get sacked and railway will be made public. Shame on you. Shame.

1 star only because it's the minimum you can give. Worst train service on the planet, not even close. I genuinely don't remember the last time I got a train that wasn't delayed. It's an absolute joke of a service.

Very bad experience this morning. I spend £6,000 on the tickets per year for me and my partner. Trains are late almost every day and cancelled too. This morning there were two “revenue protection” staff on the train that were kicking out everyone from 1st class basically packing people like sandrines in the back of the train. I do understand that people who sit in the first class should have a valid 1st class ticket but considering that there is too many people on the train they should be allowed to stand in the first class to allow for a more comfortable journey. The company management should rethink their exchange with their public as they keep increasing ticket price to ridiculous levels, service is VERY poor and treatment of other customers like that will definitely not help them to “protect the revenue”.

As is often said…what a shame there are no zero star options. Absolutely atrocious behaviour yesterday on the part of the train company…in our attempting to get back to London from Luton. No information at all, train after train cancelled with no forward notice, the driver of the train that did finally turn up seemingly had no information as to its destination…which, in the event, was miles short of central London. No explanations given, either over the PA, on station screens or online. It is obvious that this company does not give a toss as to the public’s view of them - no staff anywhere to be seen (possibly the drivers were working from home?) …and why should they while they are entirely immune to such feedback. And I have no pretensions that they would dream of reading these reviews….straight into the ether.

Wow , the worst journey yesterday evening from Leagrave to London Blackfriars .Trains came up on the indicator but then never arrived .No information given at all about what was going on and frustrated and anxious passengers with luggage tying to get to Luton Airport , London or Gatwick . No staff in sight . After about an hour a train came in with no indication where it was going so we’re all got on .It got as far as West Hampstead and then terminated. There was no staff or information available .It was chaos . It took is 2 hours to get back home in London and were lucky that we know London and that you could get the underground from West Hampstead nearby. I don’t use Thameslink very often but I would not rely on it on the future .Shocking service with total disregard for supplying information and treating its customers with respect . I am shocked to see how many other customers have had the same experience .

I have been using “Thameslink” since 1982 and have witnessed a significant deterioration in service since COVID and in the last 2 years or so especially. The key issues are:
- the inadequacies of the class 700s currently in use - they are the wrong trains
- frequent cancellations and delays
- shortages of train crew
- hopelessly overcrowded trains
- train failures
- the practice of missing stops- usually Harlington and Flitwick to make up time - yet all 3 Luton stations are stopped at

The unreliability of what is an expensive service makes commuting in to London and leisure trips in to the capital fraught with problems. The passenger is left wondering whether or not they will actually get home

This was exemplified on Saturday 15 August when there was almost constant disruption, delays, cancellations and skipped stops

Once upon a time, you could set your watch by Thameslink. No longer. The Department for Transport needs to instigate an action plan to sort this mess out

Worst train company in the UK if not the world. Could not run a train service of their lives depended on it. Constant delays and lies. Prices always rise for a bad service

So Govia handed back their licence for Thameslink, Im sure many thought the nationalisation would bring better things. Nope ! It is appallingly lacking, trains cancelled last minute not just 1 but 2, one after another and those to follow are late, who is running this s..t show, seriously incompetent, and the excuses, delayed due to no staff, train had to be cleaned( what the whole train)fire alongside track even though a previous train ran alongside it 5 mins earlier. Get a grip Department of Transport it’s a disgrace and we are only a few months into the newly taken over management.

They changed the platform of a train and didn't bother to tell anyone. It was the last train of the night

My train was cancelled but they refused to give me compensation

Constant delays. Rip off fares !

A joke!
For people that lives/has lived on the stopping services stations in the London area, it's a running joke. I literally saw posts of people looking to work at the BBC in Borehamwood that would refuse to live in Borehamwood cause Thameslink experience actually makes the place less appealing.

It's a constant "lack of staff" for late night and early sunday services, so trains gets cancelled all the time.
Add the "signal issues" at least once a week, adding delays and cancellations.
It's one line between Gatwick and Luton, with zero redundancies, so if there is an issue on one end of the line, it propagates along the whole line.

There is a delay repay system that has so many hoops and jumps between a useless TFL website (that doesn't work half the time) and forms and info and steps... that you lose the will to live and give up. So it's a constant robbery of £3-4. But from today, I am making it my mission, I will claim every single penny at every occasion possible!

And prices just go up. Every year. This is the only punctual thing about Thameslink.

Train services between St Pancras and Greenwich line have been cut in half over the summer period - this is supposed to be a SERVICE, and currently it is skeletal, resulting in OVERCROWDING on Southeastern trains from London Bridge, and huge gaps between services in to London on the Greenwich line. This is OUTRAGEOUS and Thameslink must lose their franchise for this behaviour.

Round of applause for Thameslink who after cutting half the trains that run through Norwood Junction at rush hour are now using customers money to pay some clown to sit in the 'first class' portion of the carriage to make sure no one goes in there! Well done you!