London Northwestern Railway Reviews 

25:09:2025 17:46 train cancelled no staff available. Broken Britains broken railways are a national disgrace

Absolutely joke of a service trains always cancelled or late missing my connection total joke of a service

Appalling service from London to Liverpool. Long delays, hot trains with no air, cancellations, early termination of train before reaching destination and overcrowding, it had it all. Transferring to public ownership can not come quickly enough for this omnishambles company

Dreadful service, our pre-booked train to Birmingham International Airport was delayed by over an hour, forcing us to pay over 70 for an Uber in order to make our flight on time.

We opened a claim for compensation and all we were giving was a pathetic and insulting £2.90 refund.

Will never use this train service again. Absolute Disgrace

The only benefit of travelling with this company from London to Coventry is the lower price compared to the competitor.

On a Friday evening in August, the train was delayed and because there's no seat reservations, there was a stampede at Euston! Every single seat was taken and it was one of my top 3 worst train journeys!

The trains are uncomfortable and it's weird to have to sit so close to strangers and face them without tables for over 2 hours. When I travelled to Crewe recently I was talking to my partner and the man opposite decided to join in.

If you want privacy and are travelling for work, take the more expensive competitor trains instead

Their ticket officers are rude and aggressive, they treat people with distain.
Don’t reply to complaints and an overall bad service and company. I avoid the trains now!

Overcrowded, no seats, late both outbound and return. On return London to Tamworth we were thrown off at Rugby with a sudden random announcement they were skipping several stops. It's the third time this has happened with LNR on our London trips and we've had to get a 40 minute Uber home. Absolutely awful and will go out of my way not to travel with them again.

They cancel trains and when you ask for a full compensation they pretend the train is delayed by 15 mins to pay the minimum compensation. The ticket price is insanely high for a terrible service. That made me regret the choice of living out of London as it’s always a pain to deal with them

We bought cheap advance tickets from Birmingham New Street to London Euston. We only used LNR for the one day but it was very good value for money, comfortable, trains on time.

My God what a dreadful experience on this train service train outward had no seat available from the point of starting at Birmingham and got worse all the way into a
London. Journey home delayed because of congestion at Northampton. This is the only godam company to use Northampton if they can't sort out basic logistics than god help us all. Let us hope rich people stop taking advantage of the majority and this line goes back into state onership.

If I could give 0 stars I would.. over 90% of the time my trains are late or cancelled, my journey is short 8 mike trek on a main line.. the good weather make no difference to the frequent disruptions. Their is never an apology from the train staff, the trains are dirty and noisy. This company should be forced to improve or forced into liquidation. Why on earth do us beits put up with this crap I don't know
.

All the staff are very helpful when advising in a delay claim and in particular Molly. Smashing customer service.

Travelled on the 12.49 lichfield trent valley to London Euston standing up for 1hr 34 mins no cool air absolute luxury thanks london northwestern

Forced to use the Rugby-Northampton connection semi-regularly in past few months and the level of service is abhorrent. Trains constantly late or cancelled. Punctuality is literally nonexistent. Never mind the condition in which you have to travel, overcrowded, often no A/C so you are drenched by the time you’ll get to your destination. The worst thing is that nothing is going to change since LNR is private monopoly. Faster than buses and cheaper the taxi so people are forced to use it unfortunately. It’s a public transport, it’s should be run by government. Service might be still crap but at least it wouldn’t be profit driven.

I use them frequently as there is only LNR and Avanti to get to London from where I live. That's a haven for greed.

CONS:
● Frequent cancellations and replacement bus services.
● Ridiculously over-priced, it is very unfair to people working and commuting, especially if you're self employed.
● Air-conditioning works on about 20% of the trains I've taken in hot weather.
● Short trains with people being squashed and rammed on to max out capacity and profits.
● Dirty trains. Many trains are left with food and litter scattered everywhere on arrival to Euston, and then we cram on to a dirty train trying to leave Euston.
● I've just today been on one of their brand new trains. It looked and smelled brand new, but the seats are now made with no cushions just fabric on a hard surface, and the train build quality seems to be less overall as the ride was noisier and incredibly bumpy. You could feel and hear the wheels, it felt so cheap and deceptive, like as if recent Boeing engineers built them, it did not feel safe. More greed tactics in the cheap production.

PROS:
● At the time of writing I haven't died on their trains.

That's it honestly, a train company who's only objectives are to maximise profits and to not kill anyone. They don't seem to care about timings, capacity, environmental conditions, cleanliness, how much they charge, how little they spend. A pure greed venture to make a few rich people more rich. Don't use UK trains in general if you can help it, but certainly don't use London Northwestern Railway especially if you're planning to use them regularly. They are a con.

I got on a train from Milton Keynes to Crewe. We made to wait on a boiling hot train with no wifi or mobile data for 30 minutes before being told it was cancelled and we had to get off. Annoyingly, on the opposite platform a train to Manchester (my final destination) had left five minutes before mine was announced as cancelled. So that was terrible but at least they refunded me.

Even worse, I left my suitcase on the train, and spent five days having to track it down. This is where I give this company praise - they were fairly responsive on X and managed to reunite me with my suitcase. Massive credit to Serenity, who I would give a review of 5/5 for sorting this out for me. I could not be more grateful. However, I was not given a reference number, which MK station insisted on when I arrived to collect the case, so make sure LNWR give you that if you are in my position.

Generally the missing property procedure in this country is an absolute farce (see my separate review on Missing X for that), but in this case fair play to LNWR.

Terrible in every respect and not even safe. I would choose not to travel at all if my only option was this outfit. Fortunately, there is the excellent Avanti West Coast. I bought First Class but accidentally got on a Northwestern train instead of Avanti. I won’t make that mistake again. Nowhere to stand, never mind sit, meaning the most uncomfortable train journey I have ever had. People couldn’t get on at every stop and it was even difficult to get off. The train was so crowded that I’m pretty sure that any form of incident would have had severe consequences. I made sure I got an Avanti train for the return journey and it was perfect. I noticed at Euston that three Northwestern trains were cancelled due to ‘lack of staff’. Operators like this aren’t safe, get British train services a bad reputation and should be shut down.

The train was delayed and was red hot and I tried to use Delay Repay which was impossible you wanted all the information which I proved and took an age to say you didn’t have all the info
Well I sent you the ticket and you won’t pay
A total disgraceful company!

I met Sunil, the Customer Service Adviser at Euston Station on Saturday 21st June 2025.

I needed reassurance that my ticket was eligible for the train I was aiming to catch.

Sunil was the total professional. Knowledgeable, reassuring and calm. He was a delight.

I observed him calming and reassuring a large number of passengers. Sunil is an asset to North Western Rail. He goes above and beyond his remit. Well done Sunil and thank you.

The WORST!!! train experience me and my family have ever had. Train from London Euston to Crewe was full, rammed we were packed like sardines and the train driver had the audacity to wish us a pleasant and comfortable journey. NEVER NEVER use this service!!!!