West Midlands Railway Avis 

This company will make you pay for their bad service. All trains from Birmingham to London were canceled all night. After hours waiting, we had to take an Uber, hence paying be double just to get to London.

The company refuses to refund regardless of all evidence given that we did not use the tickets.

Highly incompetent and alarming how they treat their customers, among others international travelers with no knowledge about their policies.

WMR appear to have stopped any attempt at providing a decent service. It’s still the same as it has been for many many years. My first train this morning was cancelled. The next was half its usual length and so was rammed full, like a sheep lorry on its way to an abattoir. This happened exactly the same on my journeys last week. I never know whether a train will be on time or cancelled or whether it will be too full to board. Still have to pay full price, though. I don’t know where the money goes, it certainly isn’t towards providing a decent service

On a day when it was -1 outside when leaving Crewe for London, the air-conditioning was on all the way to London. Ridiculously cold. Where is the customer care there??

The process for claiming even modest refunds appears deliberately designed to be unnecessarily difficult and exhausting.

After following the correct procedure at the station — returning in person, explaining the issue, waiting while staff completed and processed the form, and being issued with an official stamped receipt — I was later asked not only to supply the reference number on that receipt, but also to provide a photograph of the very document the company itself had issued.

This is administratively illogical and places the burden entirely on the customer for failures that occur within West Midlands Railway’s own internal processes. Customers are repeatedly challenged to produce additional materials, revisit stations, or use scanners, printers and other equipment that many people simply do not have access to. In my case, complying would have required making an additional return journey to the station purely to compensate for an internal breakdown beyond my control.

The time involved is long, the correspondence repetitive, and the cumulative effect strongly suggests a strategy of attrition: frustrate the customer sufficiently and many will simply give up. My suspicion is that a large majority of justified refund claims are abandoned part-way through the process for exactly this reason.

Making a legitimate claim should not implicate the customer in a drawn-out, frustrating ordeal. If the organisation is confident in its procedures, it might consider publishing data on how many refund claims are started versus how many are successfully completed, so customers can better understand what they are taking on.

A poor train company

Having stood for almost forty minutes in 0deg/ swirling snow on Crewe station, waiting for a delayed train, it was reassuring to receive an invitation from Trainpal to claim compensation. All helpful so far.
BUT, my journey did not start from Crewe , and the ticket shows Chester-Lichfield and Lichfield-Euston. So the system says NO....I now await contact from their online 'help' to advise what I should do.
No idea what the problem was on the 4th, but another train was brought in to take us the Northampton . Sadly this was awaiting cleaning, so the toilets were full of....etc....But at least the heating worked.
The staff at Crewe did their best, but it seems to be the on line compensation systems that's badly set up , or more likely, designed to ensure upset customers give up and go away.
Hurry up Nationalisation...and to think the French etc. want to privatise......

no communication no adequate service just horrible

Watford to Birmingham New Street, delayed (fair enough), then tactically cancelled at Birmingham International so it could head south and catch up, leaving us all to make our own way to New Street. Herded onto a slow service that eventually delivered us 1h4m late to New Street. Applied for refund and they only agreed to pay 50% rather than the 100% specified in their service level. Appeal attempted, overruled. What's really sad about the whole event is that we're not at all surprised. Companies shouldn't be permitted to operate in this manner. Never thought I'd say this, but maybe nationalisation is the way to go.

delay repay website not working . i filled it in correctly but still not allowing me to submit.

Evvverrry time I get in the train. Toilets r never in use. And if they are in use on a odd occasion the are riflfling with urine on the ground , also if ur a cleanse person like myself wen u was ur hands the way the the sinks are built the water goes all over the fooors and on ur clothes !!

Honestly. Trains are always late but they b wanting u to still pay full price a ticket. And if u havnt brought a ticket becus ur train was either cancelled or delayed inspectors will want to give u a 100+ fare fine/ baring in mind tickets no more the 5£ were I get on Kmt

Travel to London on West Midlands Railway.. The train though not new, but was clean and tidy.. it was not overcrowded. The perfect journey.
It wasn't late it wasn't early it was just on time.

The return journey was also pleasant clean and tidy.. top marks to the cleaning crew...

I love the look and space in the new trains. Even on busy days there's always somewhere to sit or stand comfortably without it feeling too crowded. I frequently use the Cross City Line, mainly in the Lichfield area and I find they're mostly on time. I have had the odd cancellation and delay here and there. There can be some issues on this line on occasion. But overall they tend to be quite good. Ticket prices are decent too. With my Railcard I can get into Birmingham city centre for about £5 return which is a bargain. I am yet to find a significant issue for this company. But at the moment my experiences have been comfortable and pretty good.

Having read earlier reviews it seems hardly worth adding my comments. Suffice it say their customer service is terrible constantly saying how busy they are but does it really take four months to resolve my claim for injury when at Great Malvern the train doors closed on me when trying to leave the train causing me to fall backwards and bang my head causing mild concussion.

Hardly be on time. It’s never been like this but lately from last few months West Midlands railway has become crap. Like i used to travel in trains instead of buses because trains were so reliable but now they gone worse. I must mention 2 trains here
West midlands railway 7:35 service to kidderminster. Everyday they are late . Either they drive slow or they get late at work everyday. Ridiculous
8:15 trains to redditch are the slowest ever trains or either drivers

Awful company with unintelligible pricing strategy and surly rotten staff.

As a monthly flexi pass holder travelling for work I was shocked when I loaded my pass to find 2 unused tickets had been wiped off. I was fined on the spot and appealed. The app does not show dates used and they can’t even prove. Anyone else had this issue

Yet another disgusting level of ‘service’ from this absolutely disgraceful company. More delays yet again this morning leaving my son stranded and not being able to get to college for lessons at Hereford 6th form college. I would be embarrassed to work for West Midlands. They are so incompetent, unreliable and just plain rubbish. The cancellations and delays are endless. A total disgrace.

If I could score a minus I would, on Monday 24th November I travelled from Cheltenham Spa to Wellington Telford, my company purchased the ticket, so at Cheltenham due to my hearing issues and short sight , I was reassured by a nice Railway Guard that my Ticket was anytime single and I could catch an earlier train from Cheltenham to Birmingham New Street, once at Birmingham I boarded the next train to Wellington, this is when my experience went downhill rapidly, I was asked by a Revenue Protection Officer for proof of ticket, who then informed me that I was on the wrong train, and should have been on the Tansport for Wales train, no matter how much I explained what I had been told , he surely could tell I was not a person who jumps on trains without paying, or realising my final part of my journey was not a WM ticket, he issued me a penalty fare of £100 + £14.50 fare. I then appealed the appeal service twice. So if you travel on the West Midlands Railway, do not make a mistake, because even if you travel on a Disabled Railcard , they just don't Care.

I got the very first train out of Liverpool south parkway I had to change at Stafford at 07:09 to get my train to euston at 07:14. At the stop prior to mine the driver failed to stop and the designated stop therefore delaying everyone onboard whilst had to wait a long time at the crewe whilst they got the other commuters who missed their stop taxis . I was due into Euston at 08:34 it is now 09:47 and we're sat still on the tracks no even moving with no estimated time of arrival . Totally unacceptable.

How can you justify letting hundreds of people on to an already full train, people were being trampled and squashed and still you kept trying to get more people on the train!