Great Western Railway Avis 

If I were to work for GWR I would feel profoundly embarrassed and angry at management every single time I had to go into work. It has gotten to the point where *the majority* of times I take a GWR train there is some sort of problem or delay, often a very severe one. This is in no way helped by the downright extortionate costs of rail tickets, a round journey that would cost €10 or less on the continent can easily cost over £30 on a GWR service. Privitasing trains in the UK was one of the biggest mistakes in the last half century and I am so utterly fed up of this constantly delay ridden service.

On the 16:30 from Paddington to Bath- we reserved seats.

Seat reservations were switched and the train is rammed - never mind that I paid for seats and did not get one - how on earth can it be safe to have people standing on a train travelling at 100mph

They are always late, don't communicate the reasons for the delays, don't help passengers with any information.

11am Bristol to Ldn Paddington. Peter was AMAZING!!! Travelling with my 17 month old alone and he has made this trip so seamlessly special. Kind, considerate and so helpful. Thank you Peter!

Trying to claim under delay repay scheme. But GWR won’t let me process it. Just because I can’t scan in a copy of my ticket. Compensation is only payable to the technically literate, obviously.

On 10.10 train from Southampton to Cardiff Central. Grossly overcrowded, standing throughout, bags everywhere obstructing access. No air con horrendously warm adversely affecting elderly and other passengers. Overcrowding clearly a safety issue should any untoward incident occur. GWR once again failing passengers.

2 Carriages for about 500 people on an incredibly busy route, horrendous

Honestly…..if I could give no stars I would. The worst service I have ever experienced, utterly pathetic and shameful. They couldn’t run a p*ss up in a brewery as the saying goes. An embarrassment.

A very poorly operated service, at increasing prices that is somehow deteriorating further.

Management need to take serious action to turn this company around.

The services between London and Bristol are regularly late if not cancelled. Further to some of the other reviews, they’ll ‘run a service’ but with half the carriages so expect to be standing for 1-2 hours.

The prices continually rise whilst the service gets worse.

They’re lucky to get one star. Charge extortionate prices for a mode of transport that should be way less. Never gets you there on time and if you are delayed, makes it ball ache to get money.

My Cardiff Central–Reading service on 20 September was cancelled/affected by the Swindon disruption, so I did not travel and had to make the journey the following day.

GWR rejected my refund saying the train “left on time”. However, it appears they may be relying on the earlier delayed service, rather than the service I had actually booked.

I did not travel on my original ticket. I simply want the refund I’m entitled to for an unused ticket following the cancellation.

GWR, please tell me which specific train you believe I travelled on, because I didn’t!

Wouldn't even give 1 star! Trains are forever cancelling very last minute, with no support at all. Let's not even mention the rise of train fairs when over crowded can't get a seat. This service has got incredibly worse over the years.

I couldn’t find the words to describe how much I dislike this company

Maidenhead to London have been cancelled and delayed now every day for a month. When they exhaust their list of mostly excuses to do so- to be fair to them everyday they have a new creative excuse, they’ve now started cancelling because of a “fault on a train”- thus cancelling the train 5 min before departure and crucially only cancelling the Maidenhead stop, not the whole entire journey preceding it or their final stop at Paddington. Just absolutely absurd, completely unreliable- there’s only so much at ways you can justify being late for work because of a cancelled train, and would seriously consider commuting as a way of life. Of course don’t forget that during this month the trains that do run are absolutely packed, no seat, unbearably hot. I’ve fainted before in those conditions and last week another person fainted in front of our eyes

Hi my daughters and I would like to give a huge Thank you to all the railway staff on our journey from Reading to Paignton
On Friday the 18th of September.
My daughter uses a wheelchair ♿️ and they all went above and beyond to make our travel so enjoyable and comfortable.
Amazing 👏 Thank you all.

I travel multiple times a month back and forth from London to Somerset. Almost every time there are delays or cancellations. There’s always some shit wrong with the train lines either during somer or winter. We are in 2026, they have better train lines in Africa! How are we this backward as a first world country.

Great Western Railway need to sort out there reserved seats system. I got on the 15.27 train from St Erth, which was running 10 minutes late. When I got on board, all seats were advertised as available. I had my 10kg baby strapped to me and was agressively told by a man that I had to get out of my seat because he had reserved the seat and didn't know why it was advertised as available. My son had been strapped to me since 8 in the morning, my back hurt and all I wanted to do was sit down for the last 5 minutes of my journey. If someone has reserved a seat, but it's marked as available, that isn't my problem and I shouldn't have to deal with aggressive passengers forcing me to move. This was ontop of having to get off the 9:24 train to London Paddington at Exeter St Davids on Monday the 14th and wait an hour for the next train to continue my journey. It was an overall unpleasant travelling experience with my son.

ONE WORD - JOKE

NO STARS A Truly Terrible Experience

My experience with Great Western Railway continues to be incredibly disappointing.

What makes it even more frustrating is that the train drivers regularly apologise over the tannoy for the terrible service, overcrowding and cramped conditions. You hear the same apologies journey after journey, but absolutely nothing seems to change.

I appreciate that delays and disruption can sometimes be unavoidable, but when passengers are repeatedly subjected to overcrowded, uncomfortable journeys and the response is simply another apology, it becomes incredibly frustrating.

An apology is only meaningful when something is done to address the underlying problem. With GWR, you are stuck in a cycle of terrible service, apology, nothing changes, repeat.

For the price of the tickets, I expect a reliable and reasonably comfortable service. GWR is currently falling well short of that.

Less apologising, more action.

I took the Great Western Railway train from Paddington down to St Erth on Sunday, September 13th, and even though it was completely rammed, the journey was brilliant although we arrived 13 minutes late due to being stuck behind a freight train!

Our first class host, Tania, was fantastic from start to finish. Managing a packed train for five hours on a busy Sunday can’t be easy, but Tania was so kind and helpful throughout, squeezing down busy aisles with drinks and making sure everyone knew where to go for their connection. She is a real credit to GWR, we were impressed.

The real strength of the service is always the front-line staff who take such good care of everyone. You get a bit more personal attention in First Class, but the Standard Class hosts, train managers, and drivers are all wonderful, especially when delays pop up. A potentially stressful situation becomes completely manageable because of them, and Tania in particular really made this trip a great experience. Thank you!