West Midlands Railway Avis 

I travelled with West Midlands Railway (WMR) on 10/07/2026 from Liverpool Lime Street to London Euston.
When I reached Crewe, the service was terminated due to strike action. This was completely beyond my control. I called WMR customer service, and their representative told me that I could use my existing WMR ticket on another train operator to continue my journey to London.

The only available option was Avanti West Coast. However, when I tried to board the Avanti train with my WMR ticket, I was refused and told that my ticket was not valid. The staff advised me to purchase a new Avanti ticket if I wanted to continue my journey. As I had no other option, I was forced to buy a new ticket from Crewe to London for £59.99.

When I returned home, I contacted WMR Customer Relations. They asked me to send them a copy of my Avanti ticket and all the supporting evidence, saying they would investigate the matter. I provided everything they requested.

After waiting 18 days, I finally received a response. They declined my refund request with a brief message stating that they were "unable to process your refund." No proper explanation was given, despite the fact that I had provided all the evidence they asked for.

This was an extremely disappointing experience. The strike action was not my fault, and I relied on the advice given by WMR's own customer service team. Because of their incorrect information, I ended up paying an extra £59.99 just to complete my journey. Instead of taking responsibility, they simply refused to reimburse me.

I would not recommend West Midlands Railway. Their fares may be cheaper than other operators, but in my experience, that comes at the expense of customer service and support when things go wrong. If you value reliable customer care, I would avoid travelling with WMR.

I've been using this train service for many years and it's getting worse by the day. Their delay repay system is a joke, I'm currently waiting for my claims that's hasn't been sorted for over 2 weeks and they advertise that everyone gets refunds pretty quickly which is false advertisement.

Now with the TSSA strikes happening pretty much every couple of weeks it's effecting my work schedule as I work both Fridays and Saturdays (mostly evenings).

Unnecessary cancellations is really annoying especially when loads of people could be stranded.

Plus I rarely see staff check for tickets since I do regularly see people who don't buy a ticket and get away with it while I pay over £122 A MONTH just to get to work!

This company needs to get a grip and make serious changes for the benefit of the passengers otherwise we need a new more friendly, honest and respectful service to replace... this so-called reliable train wreck service.

Rubbish. Delayed. No information provided, no updates, nothing. Eventually told to use other trains.

I turned up late, so I didn't have time to buy a ticket. I thought I would be able to on the train, but was told 'You're getting a £50 penalty and although I can let you buy a ticket on board, that would be me doing you a favour'. I was willing to pay for the ticket, I had my purse out and everything. I felt like I was completely ignored when asked to explain and it seemed like no matter what I said, I was getting that penalty no matter what.

It's not just the train service that is woeful – my train travelled a few stations and then stopped in Crewe where we were told it was cancelled due to points failure and there would be no more trains today. No staff to help or redirect you or keep you informed. EVEN WORSE is the efforts they go to to not give you a refund. Their online Delay and Repay form appears to be designed to block attempts at claiming a refund. A shedload of info is required, you need to downsize images of yuor ticket as otherwise the site won't accept them and then one of two things happen: the form just drops out/disappears or your receive a message saying 'You are not travelling today. We do not recognise this ticket.' Crookery in plain sight.

App broken for weeks so unable to use a ticket. There is no other way
Staff checking tickets abusive

Cheap train fare but no working toilets on a 2hours+ journey from Crewe to London.

Thieving scum cancelled a train, made me wait 10 days for a refund and only gave me a 50% refund for a cancelled train that the station announcement, and trainline app both stated as CANCELLED. They claim it was only 30 minutes late! I certainly wasnt on it.

I've appealed, I've also hit the request refund on the trainline app which automatically says I'm due a FULL REFUND for the CANCELLATION.

I am writing to make a formal complaint about the unacceptable service I experienced today.

I rushed to catch my train and arrived at the platform in time to board. However, the train doors were already closed at approximately 6:37:14, despite the scheduled departure time indicating they should not have closed until around 6:37:30. This meant I was unable to board the train, even though I had made every effort to arrive before departure.

Missing this train caused me to be late for work, resulting in unnecessary stress and disruption to my day. I find it unacceptable that the doors appeared to close earlier than the scheduled departure time, and I believe this matter should be investigated thoroughly.

I request that you review the CCTV footage and any relevant operational records to determine why the train doors closed before the advertised departure time. I would also like to understand what action will be taken to prevent this from happening to other passengers.

Given the inconvenience, stress, and financial impact this incident has caused, I am requesting full compensation. I also ask that this complaint is taken seriously and that I receive a full explanation of the outcome of your investigation.

I look forward to your prompt response.

I made one honest mistake by boarding the wrong train during an interchange. There was no intent to avoid paying and no financial loss to the operator, yet I was fined £130. My appeal was dismissed without any real consideration. This feels less like customer service and more like a system designed to punish genuine passengers instead of catching fare evaders. Don't expect fairness or common sense—just penalties.

I spoke to the customer relations staff. A women, the rudest person I have spoken to. No sympathy, sarcastic comments, didn’t solve the problem, spoke in a way which confused me more. So unbelievably rude at the end of the call. This is shocking behaviour, I was told I would speak to someone “higher up”, and never have I been treated with this much disrespect. Westmidland services should think twice about who they put in “customer relations”. It is appalling.

Cancellations and delays literally everyday... Hot weather, rain, snow, signalling problems, lack of train crew and other...

The service for the line that I live on is regularly cancelled for vague reasons, often involving service faults or missing staff members.

When it does work, the service is very good and the staff are polite, respectful, and helpful. But, again, I can't consider this good service if literally half of the trains are cancelled every day.

The customer service from the company itself is genuinely atrocious. WMR customer service agents appear to have much less of a clue about service times, stations, or lines than I do. Respectfully, also they tend to have very thick South Asian accents that make communicating in English difficult. I can only conclude from this that WMR has outsourced its customer service to a South-Asian call-centre-- it is unfortunate that the savings WMR make from this are clearly not spent on hiring enough staff or maintenance crew to run an train service.

Leaving my views on the Starmerite Labour Party aside, it is a shame that bringing WMR into 'public ownership' has somehow failed to improve on anything.

Screw this shit show. Cancelled, delayed, and in a heatwave! Took 45 minutes to get from Wolverhampton to Birmingham, and kept cancelling trains like it was a hobby. In this hot weather, that's NOT what you want to be doing, especially as people are more irritable, and hot. You're increasing their risk of heat induced illnesses and your causing an inconvenience. There wasn't even a general given reason for the cancellations other than "hot weather". Screw you for all the crowds, screw you for cancelling, screw you.

So hot in the train. Conditioning is very bad. Two different temperatures inside and outside of the train

Booked and paid for tickets to be told next day (15 hours before catching train) that the last train has been cancelled due to a member of staff not being available. Can you believe that
A. They couldn’t get another member of staff to fill the role in 15 hours.
B. There isn’t any standby staff.
C. They are so unprepared, they cancel trains and are happy to cause real problems for the public.
I’m really struggling to understand how companies are allowed to be so incompetent and chaotic with no thought for its customers. Sadly, this isn’t the only train company with the same morals, ethics and unaccountability. The country needs a good look at these woeful companies.

What's the point in saying a train leaves at a certain time, then the train leaves a minute before that😂. No point in train drivers

Trains cancelled, sorry ‘delayed’.
It’s a scam this company uses. If my 07:20 doesn’t turn up (as usual) but the next one does, it’s announced at the ‘delayed 07:20’ They treat you like idiots.
Escalator at Snow Hill broken and closed off for months. The sooner this is privatised the better. Surely it can’t get any worse??

Do not use was left waiting nearly 3 hours in sun I fell sit trainers cut my arm was told to get out of waiting room by staff

I put in a delay reclaim on Friday due to the train being delayed over 30 minutes and then being cancelled on the way they refused the claim saying that there was no delay on that train. I had to bye another ticket for the journey as the train was that late