Southeastern Railway Reviews 

Commuter trains are now actually coming early and sometimes leaving before schedule ! I usually get the 07.49 service to the Medway towns from the Canterbury area and the service is now arriving at 07.45 nearly every day. If you try to catch at train “ on time” you’ll miss it. I see so many getting people now caught out with this- just so that the company can say they are on time. On the way back, the same thing happens. No working toilets on long 12 carriages! This is not serving the public. Waiting rooms are consistently locked! What IS the point of having them there with some refurbished if they are locked - and in winter? Yet everyday they have about a thousand staff check you’ve paid at the station; SouthEastern clearly have oodles of cash for that. It’s extremely expensive and barely any facilities. The toilets on the platforms are usually clean however.

4th March 2026 London to Strood off peak pre booked cost £7.25 (return half) Had to travel earlier. Instead of 19.20 had to go 14.20 still off-peak with pensioner railcard. Cost to change £10.20. Re-Nationalise these bloodsuckers now.

There are no trains On multiple occasions Southeast London. In an area that already doesn't have tubes. I understand people need trains during the week to go to work. But people have weekends off and want to enjoy these days and you decide to have engineer work on the weekends. Always.
And then you increase the ticket fare. How is this a good service?
No tubes no trains and today (1/3/26) no buses either.

A 3 rd class ride by GUA -TATANAGAR Memu...1.40 hr distance and it takes 6 hour after delaying by 3 hour

Shame..

I purchased a Railcard through the Southeastern app and did not use it at all. On the same day of purchase, I realized it would not be useful for me and attempted to cancel it. However, there was no clear or accessible option in the app to do so.

Unfortunately, I did not manage to complete the cancellation at that time. Today, 23 days after the purchase, I tried again to cancel it through the website and was informed that there is a strict 14-day cancellation period.

This is a digital card that has never been used. I do not understand why it cannot be cancelled and refunded in these circumstances. The process to cancel was not straightforward, and the lack of clarity in the app contributed to this situation.

I am disappointed with the customer experience and the inflexibility shown in handling an unused digital product

Worst train company ever. Delay repay was refused because they didn’t even know if my train was delayed? Haha

Keep your money guys your day is coming mark my words.

Update: after I replied that I would escalate the issue, they approved a whopping £1.80 refund on a £41.80 return fare. Now I can afford half a box of chips from the takeaway as the threat of being fired for being late to work looms ever closer.

Update: these absolute rats flagged this review as ungenuine so I’m going to keep posting updates in response so everyone sees it. Hopefully your contract isn’t renewed so you people who brown-nose shareholders and prioritise profit over customers are out of a job and are smoking crack to get over losing your wives to the personal trainer. Reprobates.

My son has just turned 18 but is still at school. He had a 16-17 Railcard, which meant his monthly season ticket cost around 57 pounds. The railcard no longer applies so we bought a 16 to 25 railcard for 80 pounds for three years, only to discover that the railcard does not apply to season tickets and does not apply to travel before 10 am making it useless for school students. His season ticket now costs 127 pounds a month which we can really not afford so how does he get to school. I think this is discriminatory because of age and should be illegal

Absolute shambles of a company - can't run trains on time to save their lives and their customer service is the worst in the UK, utterly unhelpful and don't know what they are talking about half the time. Money grabbing idiots but then it's run by the government - shouldn't really be surprised! Should be shut down!

Rubbish. Trains are either late or cancelled. On the good exception they are on time they arrive 5 minutes early and leave before their scheduled departure time which causes us to miss the train even though we are following their timetable. Trains run through the station hourly which make it worse. If there was something else I’d use it instead of this company.

Don’t hope to get anywhere at a reasonable time the second there is the slightest bit of rain

They will also offer you alternative train tickets that have longer travel times and are more expensive than your initial tickets as if that’s supposed to make it better (:

I was in a state after having had a terrible day. My Victoria train was cancelled and I had to go to Cannon Street. The man at the ticket barrier for platforms 4/5/6/7 at 18:50 was so kind to me when I cried. Sometimes there are angels out there.

Well, I am surprised that so many people have had such an awful experience. I appreciate im not a daily train user, but because I havent been on trains I this country for many years, I cannot believe the improvement
in rolling stock and in station staff. The treatment I have had from Special assistance staff both at Maidstone East and at Victoria, has been nothing short of WONDERFUL. So there!!

If there is a zero option on stars it would be 0. But there isn't, so one has to choose 1. Southeastern is the worst from any other I used in UK. There are trains with no toilets, WHO THOUGHT TO BUY LONG TRAINS WITH NO TOILETS? IF you get off at a station where there is SUPPOSEDLY a toilet, it is always "out of order". YES SUPPOSEDLY, BECAUSE THERE ARE NO TOILETS ON MANY TRAIN STATIONS.The toilets on a train if you happen to get on one with a toilet, none of those on the train is open, if there is one open, there would be no toilet paper, no water, no soap. And that is not once or twice, it is a system for southeastern administrators who only collect bonuses without thinking of providing services.We live in a dump from 16th century. But there is a CCTV! Wow- CCTV in the primitive hygiene conditions of16c
Horrendous, horrendous, horrendous!!!

A really unhelpful barrier guard. Due to an accident, I was later than expected to get my train. As I was short on time, I quickly bought my ticket online as I know there are usually queues at the kiosks. I mistakenly didn't select the ticket option, as it was raining and I was walking in a rush to get to the station from a car park.
When I got to the barrier, I realised this. This has happened to me before, and the barrier guard would check my ticket details and let me through. This time she didn't.
The tickets are very expensive, and the service is very poor and inconsistent. I would expect a degree of leniency from this company.

Using the service daily, January has been packed with cancellations and delays, with Southeastern not doing anything to avoid this.

15th Jan, now seen 3 cancellations and 5+ delays in just these 2 and a half weeks.

One of the worst and most unreliable train service companies out there, always have a delay/cancellation reason, awful

Great experience from Deal to Stratford international on Friday. Arrived at 18.48 at Stratford the ticket inspector on the train was very kind and also the ticket person by the barrier gates at Stratford.

Absolute rubbish, delays, cancellations, time table changes without any warnings....how this company keep getting their contract renewed is beyond belief. Clearly back handers.

The annual sh*# show during the Christmas period that these inept clowns preside over seems even worse than normal this year. Even though Victoria Station is closed and there are no trains to Victoria at all Southeastern do not permit season ticket holders to use the St.Pancras train to get to Central London without paying an additional £15 daily charge. So not only are passengers subjected to significant inconvenience and delays they must pay additionally as they navigate these delays. It is long overdue that the contract awarded to these idiots is immediately suspended so that customers can be treated fairly.
Disgraceful antics SouthEastern! In which warped version of reality do you live?

Caught the train from Rochester to Herne bay tonight. The guard on the train, Catherine. Was an asset to south east Rail. With staff like her your service will be 10 out of 10. Thank you VCatherind for your service and dedication