West Midlands Railway Reviews 

I unknowingly bought a ticket that had a rail card attached. The ticket was only a 40p discount. I bought the ticket as soon as I woke up for university at 7 am, at which point I was still half asleep and couldn't have possibly noticed the rail card attached to the ticket I bought due to the fact I am quite literally non functioning in the mornings.
Upon ticket inspection, the inspector was quite rude about my innocent error, I had explained that I unknowingly bought the ticket with a rail card attached and offered to purchase a new ticket to make up for my error. Unsurprisingly, I was met with a fine instead.
In my appeal I explained the above, and was met with a response indicating that the appeal member didn't even bother reading my reasoning and explanation. I stated that I bought the ticket as soon as I woke up, AT HOME, and the response stated 'there are signs displayed bla bla...' Riddle me this, if I unknowingly bought a ticket at home with a rail card attached, do they think that a tiny sign is going to make me realise I bought a ticket with a rail card attached?
Not to mention, trainline and the wmr app automatically adds railcards before purchase! So the one time I forget to check that I removed it, I'm met with an absurd fine. I'm not going to go dive into my rant about the pure capitalistic greed this company is demonstrating, however maybe if the rail card discounted more than a measly 40p I would've noticed that it was attached to my ticket.
Quite frankly it is absurd to be handed a fine over a 40p discount and acting like I am personally trying to defraud the railway service. West Midlands Railway are greedy thieves, actively trying to line their pockets while underpaying staff causing strikes, not to mention that the trains are always either delayed or cancelled. You'd expect the opposite with the hefty fines and ticket prices.

On Thursday 4th September 2025 I travelled with West Midlands Trains from Birmingham to Great Malvern arriving at 14.32.
I had booked Assisted Travel as I am disabled but there was nobody there to assist me. As I struggled to disembark the train doors closed on me causing me to fall backwards. With the doors still trying to close on my legs three gentlemen on the platform came to my assistance and helped me off the train.
Fortunately I was not injured but very much shaken and could easily have suffered a stroke or heart attack.
Is this the service one expects from a train company?

What a shower of shit! Can’t get a train out of Coventry tonight to Birmingham for a gig. Appalling. You would think we live in a third world country.

Constantly late, cancelled trains frequently, and when you try and get a refund for your cancelled journey the websites deliberately set up to be as difficult as possible to claim. The toilets are either filthy or out of order and train guards that seem to love the sound of their own voice and constantly ramble on the loudspeaker, that’s always turned up to 11 thru the entire journey.

The form is a nightmare. If you try to delete or go back a page you have to start over. It accepted my journey to begin with but then could not find the second half and wanted more details including a “reference” which I could not identify as no info given Then the recaptcha did not work at which point I gave up and tried to phone but they shut at 4pm!

I would 0 stars if I could!! They left it until Saturday 30 August to release this school years autumn season ticket for a term which began in Monday 1 September. They say that tickets take 2-5 working days to process on their website plus the time for posting once processed is clearly far from sufficient time!!
Not only did we have to pay for a pass that arrived 7 working days after our daughter’s term started but we had to pay for daily tickets for her to get to school. Now we are waiting for a refund for which we are in a queue for!!! Presumably with the rest of the Midlands school children who couldn’t get a season ticket in time, due to the ridiculously late release of the autumn term season ticket.
The tickets issued doesn’t work at the barriers either!!
I have also applied twice for a student ID card 2 weeks apart and neither of them have arrived yet so my 14 year old daughter is constantly being subjected to the Spanish Inquisition each time she travels. Get a grip West Midlands Railway and do better please.

I made a complaint on 14th august, submitting relevant photo evidence at the time. A week later I was emailed asking to provide the same information that I already had done. I replied to that sending the information again and since then I haven't heard a word responding to my complaint. Clearly they don't care at all about their customers

I travel between Tile Hill and Marston Green 1-2 times a week and this year every single time I travel the train is delayed or cancelled.
The other day I ended up paying for a hotel at a cost of £81 due to the train to Tile Hill being cancelled (which didn't even tell me on the board it was cancelled) The guy at the station said get the Bournemouth train to Coventry then the train back to Tile hill but there was no guarantee the train would stop at Tile Hill!
Anyway I couldn't get on the Bournemouth train they were packed in like sardines on three carriages(a regular occurrence)
Apparently you can get a refund if you're train is 15 minutes late or cancelled but every time I try it says I can't get a refund as my ticket has been partially used, meaning I suppose they got me to my destination! YES but I paid for a return which they didn't fulfill and left me stranded hence I had to stay in a hotel.
I said to a guard this service is like a third world country and his reply was "You've took the words right out of my mouth"!!
Make sure you go to the toilet before you board as the toilets are likely to be out of service!
The train from Tile Hill to Marston Green (4 stops) used to take 15 minutes as it stopped at Berkswell Hampton in Arden Birmingham International and then Marston Green, now it takes half an hour as it doesn't stop at Marston Green anymore so you have to get off at Birmingham International and wait 15 minutes for the Rugely Trent Valley train to travel one more stop to Marston Green which is about another 2 minutes down the line! CRAZY!!!!

Tried to get home to berkswell from bham new st on 13/8/25. Rush hour local services both cancelled. No info on boards at new st or announcements. Had granddaughter with us so got an Avanti to international and a taxi home. Cost us £16. Totally useless service always cancelling trains. Sooner in public ownership the better.

Zero tolerance on genuine ticket mistakes, zero ability to run a train on time too. Oh the money grabbing irony.

Absolutely the most unreliable train network in the uk. I take the same trains 5 times a week in the morning and evening for 3 years now and only this year that train WASN’T LATE OR CANCELLED ONLY 5 times. It is absolutely disgusting and unacceptable to ask people pay for tickets when you cannot follow a basic schedule that you have created. It’s a shame! Disappointing! What’s the point of new trains if all the toilets are always locked or out of order. What’s the point of paying for services that you are almost never providing with a pride or on time when I have to be late to work literally every day. Wasn’t scheduled made to follow? Maybe it’s time to finally look into re staffing and not attend to your work like you couldn’t be bothered to come out of bed. Idiotic!

I get the cross city line train to Birmingham every day, and every day without fail the train is either delayed or cancelled. I have spent SO much money on Ubers when they cancel the trains for the entire evening for a “signalling failure” it is honestly such a terrible service. I can’t think of a week where they haven’t been trains cancelled for the entire evening. It’s like they sit in an office and spin a wheel to decide why the next train should get cancelled. And the refund system is insane! You end up having to go through customer support if you have an open return and have scanned your ticket on the way in, as this makes you “ineligible for a refund” then they try and charge an admin fee, so you end up getting 2 quid back from a 10 quid ticket for a service that isn’t even running! I honestly could spend the rest of my life complaining about the trains in the UK. They seem to run so well everywhere else, yet get cancelled when it’s “too hot” here.

Absolutely unreliable. I used this service between stevhford and new street to go to work and back however i had issues most of the time. Occasionally left a minute earlier, many times was late and staff were were always unprofessional and on one occasion on new street even rude and sexist. The main issue tgat ic im late from work im loosing money - as paid by hour. If trains would be on time i should be there 15 mins begore my shift starts, but often i am still 15-20 mins late. Also, in my workplace the policy is that ic i’m late i loose service chare too. Therefore i loose an avarage £20 / week due unriable train service - or more because i spend on uber. I have tried to be eco but with this 19 century quality of train service is just not possible.

I thought I was getting a train from Bham snow hill to Solihull, but in reality I needed to get off at Bham more st to them get on another train. Which I didn't read in the rush. How annoying!! That I ended up at Shirley through the confusion. Can you make it more broader please?? Or highlighted??

Absolute jokers I book my tickets online without any human interaction.

Total cost £5.90 I have to cancel my trips I get refunded 90p as there's a £5 refund cost.

What cost? It's all flipping automated you thieves.

I know it's only a fiver but it's the principle of it

I'll never use this service again

Whilst taking a West Midlands Railway service from London to Birmingham New Street our train was stopped making us late to arrive at Birmingham New Street. When we arrived, we found our connecting train to Liverpool Lime Street that we should have missed still hadn't left yet and there was a large group of a couple of hundred Liverpool FC supporters going to their title parade.

We all stood together waiting at barriers for over 1.5 hours as no one was allowed through, no trains went by, no announcements were made saying that the train was cancelled or delayed until 1.5 hours later when a member of staff at the station told a number of people the trains were cancelled and we should find alternative routes.

I went through the delay repay process which instantly rejected my claim, so I appealed and after waiting 15 days for a response, I was finally informed that:

'... We have checked your journey and on this occasion, we could not find a delay of 15 minutes or more.'

Shocking and infuriating communication on the day has somehow been surpassed by appalling communications afterwards. Taking 15 days to find that you didn't have a delay of over 15 minutes simply means you didn't contact anyone at the station, didn't look at camera's and simply don't know your services or lines. My pictures of being the queue and the subsequent time stamps tell the story though they don't seem to be able to accept that.

If only Trustpilot allowed you to submitted less than 1 star.

Can’t thank Joe enough for the help with my refunds
He works in customer relations, he is a credit to the company
Thank you Joe :)

Hard to say what went right

A 2 hour journey took 7 hours yet here’s my response after a very delayed reply, oh and don’t bother trying to get refunded they refuse with no explanation 👍 well.

Thank you for your e-mail regarding the issues you had when attempting to travel with us. I apologise for any inconvenience and frustration caused, as well as the impact this had on your travel plans.

It's unfortunate to hear about the difficulties you had travelling that day. While I do appreciate the problems you experienced as a result, we do not reimburse for lost wages I'm afraid. I'm sorry we are unable to grant your request.

With regards to the delay itself, you can make a claim for compensation via the delay repay page on our website. I have attached a link below to the page on our website where you can submit your claim:

Delay Repay | LNR | London Northwestern Railway

I hope that helps. Thank you for taking the time to contact us

Following an app update at the start of the year which prevents flexi-season ticket holders from viewing previously activated tickets, and blocks screen captures. WMR have deliberately made it impossible for Flexi-season ticket holders to make delay repay claims. Given the appalling quality of service this is a frequent necessity.

I have made multiple complaints about this which have resulted in no resolution to the problem and have included: being told to send the ticket barcode to delay repay (precisely the thing that is being blocked); referring me to an email address that doesn't exist and bounces all messages; and referring me to a team that cannot process delay repay claims.

This matter has been referred to the rail ombudsman.
(date listed is that of my initial complaint)

Giving one star because you can’t give less than zero

It’s hard to rate a service which never operates. Most services are cancelled for the never ending “train crew shortages”

The company seems to only employ social media staff who post endless nonsense without actually providing any useful information.

If they recruited and trained as many people to run trains, we might actually have a service which operates to the benefit of the West Midlands.