West Midlands Railway Avis 

Train fines are an absolute scam. I bought a ticket with a railcard and had bought my old railcard with me instead of my new one. Despite me still having bought a ticket, I was fined £54.50 for a having used a railcard that saved me £1.50! The fine was £50 for not having my new railcard on me and £4.50 for the price of the ticket for that journey even though I already had a ticket!!

It's clear they are just trying to make money out of everyday people as I would have happily paid the £1.50 difference on the train but that wasn't an option. I've always bought a train ticket and this one time I forgot a railcard I get penalised, yet the trains are always delayed or cancelled and nothing changes.
It's ridiculous, exploitative and makes me ashamed of our rail network.

My first journey with this company will also be my last. I made an honest mistake after researching the journey online and genuinely believing contactless was valid. I had no intention of avoiding payment and was willing to pay the £19.20 fare. Also my contactless card went through in Euston. When I was approached in my destination, I wanted to pay the ticket. But I was told I had to get a fine, but not to worry about it, as it will be easily dismissed after my appealing; which end up to not be true.

Despite submitting evidence and appealing three times, I was still charged a £50 penalty. I feel my evidence and the circumstances of my genuine mistake were not given fair consideration.

All this process was extremely time consuming and frustrating.

I understand the rules, but I believe there should be room for fairness, proportionality and basic human understanding. This experience has seriously damaged my trust in West Midlands Railway and the appeals process.

I would not recommend this experience to other passengers.

don't think i've ever had a day of using the West midlands railway without a cancellation or delay, but the prices keep going up it's a joke, no wonder many don't pay

Utter joke. What's the point of having a brand new train service from Moseley Village if you just sit outside Birmingham New Street for ten minutes delayed thus missing all your connections. Crap and pointless service. Get a grip and time to start holding Notwork Fail for your delays.

It was absolutely freezing on the train from London Euston to Crewe!! So rediculous that they make it so cold, or can't control it to increase the temperature. So uncomfortable, I am chilled to the bone!!

Very poor service keeps getting cancelled or delayed and the staff doesn’t advise customers that more then one train will be delayed or cancelled. I have been waiting over 40 mins. And getting a refund is a nightmare.

Sometime ago I wrote to WMR about their dirty trains and the subsequent knock on of unavailable toilets. Us older travellers need the toilets and their non availability has consequences.

I did write to WMR about this and was basically told there was nothing they could do about it. Chiltern, GWR and other companies can provide a clean train in the morning, so why can't you?

Absolute rubbish service, trains were cancelled from Euston with no sign of later non cancelled trains, got an uber instead 😒 🙄 😑

this company is not worth a carrot. Having left me high and dry in Birmingham Station on June 02nd due to trains being cancelled. I applied for a refund. Having sent back my unused tickets i am still waiting for my refund. They claimed it would arrive in a few days but i still wait after 113 days. The only way to deal with this rubbish of a company is through the Small Claims Court system which is what i am about to do. Do not let them win with there delaying tactics

Service to Birmingham Airport cancelled at short notice, had to buy ticket for another service/ company . Asked WMR for refund, had to provide all sorts of info via email as the REFUND page does NOT WORK (as default). I am told TO WASTE SOME MORE MONEY by SENDING BACK THE PHYSICAL TICKET as it holds "monetary value" :) ALONG WITH THE REASON for refund ! and they even recommend to be sent RECOREDED DELIVERY ! I thought I've seen them all .... Well folks , you've been warned !

I wanted to write a positive review... I really did. Day One was fine. Trains on time. Reasonable fare to get to BNS on Cross city line (cheaper than buses.... go figure), and staff very helpful..... but then Day Two.... back to normal.... 10 mins delay at Barnt Green with no explanation.....

(From BBC)

WMT has become the fourth operator to enter public ownership under the government's Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Act.

Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said: "The thousands of passengers who travel with London Northwestern and West Midlands Railway will be using services that are owned by the public and run with their interests at heart."

West Midlands mayor Richard Parker said passengers had previously "put up with unreliable and overcrowded trains and a confusing ticket system" by private companies that had "put profit before people".

He said: "This is about more than a badge on the side of a train – and I will be working closely with ministers to improve West Midlands Railway services and raise standards."

Sadly, not much difference..... surely politicians dont tell porkies??????

If I could give them 0 stars I would!! 19th Sept London Euston to Crewe 20.35 carriage 8. Drunks shouting all the way home loud, in peoples faces, bottles of wine in their hand, disorderly, standing by the WC non stop language and caos but nothing was done about it. Couldn,t go the loo or get past them to get to another carriage. Felt ill due to it, I was disabled and its put me off going to London but my daughter lives there! Why leave them to upset other passengers for over 2 hours!! Ignored a riot. Disgusting there were children on the train it was frightening

DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY IF YOU ACTUALLY WANT TO GO TO YOUR LOCATION. For my train tickets I use trainline, and for the second time I have had the disservice of being allocated with a Western Midlands Railway service. The first time I used this train line was on the 25th of May from Birmingham New street to London. With only 2 stops from New street to the bloody Birmingham airport and some F off area I can’t remember, the train conductor announced that ALL of the stops will be cancelled due to them being understaffed; why start the train in the first place If you knew there were only 2 of you?? We haven’t even left Birmingham and you’re cancelling the train already??! WHY BOTHER? This led me to be stuck I’m Rugby at 10pm in the night having no idea how the hell I was going to get back to London. Now fast forward to today, I’m on the train from London to Birmingham peacefully enjoying my book just to see on the screen that the train is terminating at Northampton (and all the stops after are cancelled). WHAT THE HELL IS THERE TO DO IN NORTHAMPTON? GENUINELY?!? They didn’t even have the courtesy to initially make an announcement, I had to hear the sighs and utterances of everyone else to be inconvenienced with the information. Oh! But eventually the train driver did finally speak to us, he warmly started the announcement with a “good afternoon” first of all it’s 11pm and 2nd of all piss off with your “good afternoon” how the hell am I going to get to Birmingham?!?! There were people on there who were going to football games going to Coventry now having their journey delayed and I had plans that I unfortunately had to cancel and abandon my journey because of this. Prior to this disaster I had booked time off work (and had to take an unpaid day off) to make this journey just for me to come back and do F all with my day. Also my return ticket from Birmingham to London is non refundable, so not only has this disgraceful company wasted my money, you have wasted my time, F’ed with my money work wise (shifts I could’ve picked up today) they have ruined my plans and have F’ed me right off. If I could give this company 0 stars I would; a circus full of slow monkeys and dumb donkeys can run a better train line than West Midlands Railway. But you know which company has never let me down?? Avanti West Coast, the time where I was stranded in Rugby I was able to take an Avanti West Coast train home, I have never dealt with such tomfoolery with this company. If you want a reliable train line use any one BUT West Midlands Railway. And if you have a ticket with them, you might as well refund it now because they’ll just cancel it halfway through your journey and drop you off some random train station in England.

Expensive. Costs £20 for a 36 mile journey. In Belgium I paid £9.20 for a 55 mile journey at same time of day.

Completely utter dogshit service. I would give it 0 stars if I could. They have the audacity to charge for this. Unbelievable that there's a high chance the driver doesn't even turn up and your train gets cancelled. Or a leaf is spotted 1km from the track so an entire exhibition needs to be mounted to clear it. Honestly you might as well walk to save your sanity.

I tried to purchase a ticket from Telford to honeybourne for me and my girlfriend, I tried to buy two adult tickets as me and my girlfriend are above 16, the app ended up glitching and made me buy 2 child tickets, I refunded them straight away and it ended up taking 2 days to get a refund, then I tried doing it on my girlfriends phone and it ended up saying 2 adults which i thought was all good but when we had them printed we didn’t realise they actually came out as two child tickets!!! We ended up on the train without realising and when we got checked we ended up getting fined £148 because the ticket instructor didn’t have any sympathy for our situation with the app and didn’t understand that I didn’t try to buy child tickets and instead wanted adult ones. That and the 4 tickets we bought ended up costing me well over £200 and I’m fuming about it.

Got to catch my train Monday morning. Something happened and I could not get my train. Hassan was so kind helpful and patient. I will be on the next train and I feel calm again. Thank you once again Hassan 😊

me and my friend (both quite autistic) got on a train to birmingham international to go to the NEC, we were rushed by 3 large men in vests and body suits and pressures to provide our house address, personal details and we came to find we had all of this happen because we revived an under 16’s ticket as 17 and 16 year olds. we were told we need to pay £100 and that we could be prosecuted. we both felt terrified and like we had done something horribly wrong, terrible staff treating patrons like criminals for getting a slightly cheaper ticket in our already failing economy. will avoid whenever possible.

1 star is actually to much.
Frequent service disruptions and last-minute cancellations not presented real-life events between the app and train station ( trains running on the app Vs train station cancelled).
Disappointed for the money you charged for a ticket.
Is UK not middle Africa services!!!

On a train from Crewe to London Euston yesterday we are suddenly told as we were pulling into Milton Keynes that the train will not be travelling any further. No explanation just "sorry folks we won't be travelling any further than here". No compensation offered. Absolutely amateurish