London Northwestern Railway Reviews 

Tried to change booking on line as I made an error with date. Only Avanti and First Great Western services were offered in exchange, even though I could see LNW’s own services were available if buying ‘new’. Called customer services. 26 minute call. Likewise, they could not see any LNW services (West Midland Trains) on their screens so could not make any exchange. Cancelled instead and bought new ticket. Emailed customer services to ask why their own services are not offered on line when a customer wants to change a booking. Eventually received a reply suggesting I call the same number I had used before, when they couldn’t answer that question in the first place! Now travelling. Two of three toilets out of order (common problem on this route, London Euston to Birmingham New Street. Wi-Fi not working. LNW Wi-Fi support (Icomera) say ‘known issue’ on this train, can’t fix as ‘up to the train company’. Great! Staff on board usually friendly in my experience, but on line and phone support frankly laughable.

I travelled to Euston on 15/01/2024 with a journey time of 2.5 hours. None of toilets were working!

Today I am travelling back and at least in the coach I am sitting, the toilet is not working.

This is completely unacceptable and I suggest regulators to do random inspection on long journey routes

Absolutely disgusted with a worker at Milton Keynes train station today. My son travelled from Rugby to Milton Keynes with a friend on the train, 1st time he had done this. He scanned his ticket at Rugby & it was fine. When he got to Milton Keynes, it wouldn’t scan (ticket was on his phone). He was approached by a worker who told him he had committed fraud????? He was then threatened with the police being called & £100 fine or was given the option to pay £15.60 for another return ticket. Obviously he bought another ticket. I am not bothered about the money you can keep it but they way he was threatened is NOT acceptable!!! You should be ashamed of yourselves!!!

If I could have given them no star I would have done
I took one of Thier trains today from London to Birmingham
The train was delayed for 30 mins without any explanation or apology
And then in the middle of the journey we were left abondent without any assistance whatsoever
I ended up paying from my pocket to get to my last destination

It’s my first time ever to write a negative review..whoever uses them obviously knows the reasons..I feel to my bones what the phrase “I wish there was zero stars to give”
Packed trains that you are more likely to suffocate..cancelled trains more than the on time ones..you decide to use their services and then you likely have to pay for a hotel or taxi to get back home because they just don’t bother..toilets not working..and all of that while the fares are at least 5 times or even more than any other European country..

Excellent Service from LNR , made our Xmas travelling to Edinburgh enjoyable , fast and efficient, food was nice also from the Xmas menu.

Worst train company ever!!! Trains from my local station are constantly delayed or cancelled with either not explanation or ‘train faults’. The trains are ridiculously overcrowded, particularly because they are frequently short on carriages at their busiest times on long distance journeys. Staff are rude and do not communicate with passengers. Refund process is quite frankly disgusting! My partner recently had a train delayed by nearly an hour, his ticket had cost him £42, he was given a refund or £1.20! They should be stripped of the franchise

Absolutely terrible service and attitude. The male staff member lied to us to say the trains aren’t cancelled or delayed because he didn’t want to issue a refund for a train ticket,
when the official website clearly states that so many trains (by this company) are delayed and cancelled due to the very severe (80 miles per hour) winds.
I actually witnessed all the endless delays and cancellations at the station myself, because I was there in person

I really didn’t appreciate his attitude and service at all
I would avoid this company completely. It’s just not worth it, when there are any issues like severe delays and cancellations due to very severe winds and they won’t let you use the ticket the day after instead or issue a refund

Worst rail service. Rather than improving going bad to worst. Even the train staff so rude when you ask question about why service is bad. This company should take back by government.
Very disappointed.
Today 16/12/2023 I was on the train to Tring to Milton Keynes ( from tring 08.22am) train I just ask the conductor why the service getting bad. He got so angry and ordered me to get down in Cherington just before Leighton Buzzard. He was so aragon and rude.
Never recommended this service

Woeful! Late running, packed, cancellations.
If there was a zero star option it would win it.
Management and shareholders should be ashamed

I feel so sorry for anybody using London Northwestern trains between Crewe and Stafford at the moment.

Months of random cancellations on the day, sometimes cancelling trains within an hour of 'departure'

There's clearly something happening with this company that goes far beyond the striking action of ASLEF and RMT

I know people that use this service to get to work, I use it to travel to see my son.

Checked at 7:30am this morning and all trains on that service running. Checked again at around 12 and all still fine. Checked again at 1:30pm, as I leave the house at 2 and my train to pick Miles up from school has been cancelled and is the ONLY train they have cancelled, however I wouldn't be surprised if there are more as every time I visit Stoke, Longport and Stone Station the departures boards for LNW are always FULL of cancellations.

The WORST train operator I have ever used by far. Lost count of the amount of times in the last 6 months that I've been stranded in Stone for nearly 2 hours because of these RUBBISH cancellations.

I feel sorry for vulnerable people, waitresses, bar staff who often are young women stranded at small train stations at night such as Longport and Stone, reliant on this service to get home safely.

I WISH London Northwestern would mandatorily lose this train contract and it gets tendered to another company ASAP

Some of the staff are very rude and the toilets are often not working

I'm beyond p***ed off about this now for all number of reasons, MONTHS this has been going on for LONDON NORTHWESTERN TRAINS ARE A JOKE, you should see most of the reviews on TrustPilot #WellP***edOff #PuttingPeoplesLivesInDanger #CompleteJoke

Awful customer service!

I booked train tickets online for a journey from Northampton to London (open return), when I received the booking email at 8.44am, it said London to Northampton (open return), I noticed the mistake and called up straight away and got through to the call centre. I asked the staff member on the phone if she could simply swap the destinations round e.g. Northampton to London (Open Return) instead of London to Northampton (Open Return), she said this was not possible, she could only refund me and I would need to buy the tickets again, she added she would be charging me an admin charge of £10!!!

I was not happy with the admin charge as I had called up seconds after I made the booking & it was a simple mistake on an open return which would cost the same anyway.

She said she couldn't do anything about it, so passed me onto Customer Relations to complain, I waited another half an hour to get through to Ramon who was really helpful, understood my frustration and suggested two options, 1) he could give me a refund without the £10 admin fee 2) he would transfer me to the web support team who would be able to swap the destinations round on the tickets. I decided to go for option 2, so he put me through to the web team, I was cut off.

So I called back the main number but was transferred to the call centre again, I explained I wanted to talk to the web support team, but the same staff member took my details again and told me that the web team cannot swap the destinations for me, I then asked if I can have a refund without the £10 admin fee and she said no, I explained I spoke to Customer Relations and they said that the web team could amend the tickets or I could have a refund without the admin fee. She said I had been advised wrong, I then asked to speak to Customer Relations again, I was then transferred to National Rail Enquiries to their surprise, I explained I wanted to speak to Customer Relations and then asked me which train company, they kindly gave me the direct number for Customer Relations but again another 15 minutes wasted, then a further 40 minutes later on hold, I was put back through to Ramon at Customer Relations. I reminded him who I was and asked if I can have the refund without the admin fee, he did this in 5 minutes and it was resolved.

It took 2 hours overall for this to be resolved, when I called straight away after I noticed the error. Awful customer service, lack of communication between customer relations and call centre staff.

Ramon was brilliant and solved the issue but after I complained how I'd been on the phone for 2 hours and explained the lack of communication and bad customer service I had received, I asked if I could provide feedback on his great customer service and he said that wasn't an option, I had to complete a feedback form online, so I have complained about the customer service and have to wait again for another 22 working days for s response!

Maybe if they had better customer service training for their call centre then a 2 hour phone call and an angry customer could have been avoided!!!

Unfortunately the train I got at Coventry this Sunday evening was too crowded and many people in this 4 carriage train were standing, for a large part of a long journey. No functional toilets. A poor mother was helpless to help her toddler. The train failed to stop at Northampton at all, possibly Long Buckby also, no announcements. The train came into an unexpected platform at Wolverton and a different one than being advertised. Several passengers missed their train entirely as a result. This performance will seriously affect trust in this company. I love the train but we are poorly served, too many times.

Peak time,7am Leighton Buzzard, 4 carriages with train packed and no room to board.

Couldn’t physically board as people jammed in.

Disgusting service and a serious review of franchise. LNWR not fit as a train operator.

Often overcrowded, seldom on time and rarely clean, a very poor service. Given my season ticket was £5500 this year and will go up again next it would be nice to get a seat as a minimum and a working toilet on occasion would be a bonus to top it off.

Train not announced from platform. Delayed. Avoid.

Awful service. Trains were all late and delayed and the prices are ridiculously high. Rude staff too who treat you like a criminal despite the high prices I paid for the ticket. Avoid, avoid, avoid.

This is the worst train service I have ever used. Trains are always delayed or cancelled, old trains when in winter you freezing, never available space to seat or to stay comfortable. When delays the platforms are changed very often, you have to run like a headless chicken from one platform to another one. Day travel tickets are never working, you always have to ask a member of staff to let you go through, is very annoying especially at the Underground when is very busy. Euston members of staff are very relaxed, they don’t even care or bother to know what information to provide. I am disgusted to use this expensive service and to be treated like this…

The worst experience I have ever encountered on a rail service, almost had hypothermia after this experience. I got on the wrong train as i am not a regular rail user the right platform and the same destination but the trains were 10 minutes apart. I got on the 8.48 instead of the 8.58 which i own is my fault but i just thought it had gotten in early and would be departing at 8.58. When i realised my mistake it was too late and the train had departed I couldnt get off at the next stop as i wouldnt make it back the original station for 8.58.

I looked around for staff to see what i should do next and I couldnt find anyone so I just decided to stay put as i knew i would end up in Euston albeit on the slowest train possible and an hour later than I had originally anticipated.

Nearing Milton Keynes the ticket inspector got on and i explained my predicament and who then proceeded to treat me like a criminal and that I had deliberately tried to fare hop. I showed him my original £60 ticket and said it was an honest mistake I simply got on the train 10 minutes to early. I am a middle aged woman not someone who is a serial fare hopper and not someone who regularly gets the train and this is why! i was then ordered to pay a further £29 so i asked if i could get a refund on my original ticket and I was made to feel so stupid in front of a whole carriage full of passengers. This level of customer service is why you have such a poor rating. I was humiliated and embarrassed and late! why do you have trains so close together on the same platform going to the same place? unless youre a regular rail user i'm sure mistakes will happen. I'm convinced this is why they do it to get extra money off people who make genuine mistakes.

If i ever go on the train again which is highly doubtful I will ensure i never book with this firm.