Great Western Railway Reviews 2.751

The train was late and I was given a form to complete to get refunded some of my journey. When completed it was declined because I booked through train line, went to train line who referred me back to gwr, such a disappointment! If your gonna offer refunds for delayed and cancelled trains, the stick to your promise!!

Im a regular Bristol to London rail travellar and yes the delays can be frustrating but generally i feel service very good.

Remortgaged my house and got a payday loan so that my girlfriend and I could get the train to London for the day.

Despite the astonishing, life-changing cost, we are currently sat on the floor on the train home, due to lack of seating.

Next time around we will hire a limousine with private driver as it makes more sense from a fiscal standpoint, plus we are both guaranteed a seat both ways.

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.