West Midlands Railway Avis 

Trains are always delayed and frequently cancelled. On top of this some of the staff are quite rude. Would not recommend and would advise to use alternative travel if possible.

The company is simply unable to do its job. Trains are constantly delayed or canceled, with an endless list of excuses every time. The information provided about these disruptions is often inaccurate, both at the stations and on their website, making planning a journey incredibly frustrating. The only thing they seem to do reliably each year is raise their prices. Overall, a very poor and disappointing service.

Credit where credit is due. West Midlands Railway truly deserve recognition in the way they responded, and handled, my recent customer service issue. My train was delayed by an hour and therefore I was due compensation. The claim process did not going according to plan. However, the customer relations advisor (James Rattray) resolved everything in a timely and satisfacory way. A HUGE thank you. I shall continue to be a loyal customer as a result.

I needed to get to Heathrow for a flight and the first leg was 06:43 Liverpool South Parkway to Runcorn. SImple eh? But the train operated by West Midlands was delayed, with no info given why, and no expected arrival time. I got the next possible train and overall delay was more than an hour. So I went for compensation. After a lengthy attempt to understand their lamentable web process, I submitted a claim. Many days later they came back saying they had no evidence of a delay. So I appealed. This time they said they refused by clauim as I hadn't spoilt my ticket. The need to do this is well hidden in their guidance. Moreover why didn't they say that the first time round? I conclude they are incompetent slippery charlatans without the skill to even keep a record of their failed services.

They cancel my train on late notice

I would give it zero if possible
I retired 12 months ago and used to travel from Malvern to Birmingham. The service was disgraceful with constant cancellations and late running. All the time the foreign owners were taking dividends. The mouth piece CEO trying to make excuses while collecting his fat salary. I had the unfortunate news to use it this week first time in months. True to form train was delayed and then had to terminate in Bromsgrove. The station closed no help and nowhere to shelter . Train home the doors would not open so could not get off at my stop. A total shambles nothing changes. No compensation just emails saying they would look into it. An absolute disgrace.

Asked for ticket, would not scan although it had fifteen minutes earlier, instant aggression it's ok but you will have to face revenue enforcement at Worcester, really when I have paid for a ticket!!!
Then asked me today for feedback which was 15 minutes worth of data collection with a sign off that said we have big plans of 2025 you will have to be quick and with the quality of staff on display you are not going to make it. Thought tfw were bad....

Cancelling trains because of a lack of staff that call at Longport station that is only served by WM trains on a hourly service is totally unacceptable and will drive away passengers like me

Absolutely disgraceful journey
Nuneaton to Euston Saturday morning 1st November around 10.15am. Train arrived late. Told by platform staff to go to end of platform as there were 13 carriages with plenty of room at either end. Total lie. All carriages were full to over flowing. People like canned sardines. Just a out managed to get on. Packed to the limit. So hot. Train then stopped at Rugby and Milton Keynes where even more people attempted to board. Surely someone should realise the train is already so overcrowded that it is a danger to health and safety. No let's squeeze more on.
I have never experienced a journey like this before.
Travelled by train on the continent often. They put us to shame. You get a seat , they run on time and are clean and tidy.
If I can avoid this company in the future I will.

These people are thieves. My journey on the 14th of October 2025 was supposed to leave Euston Station at 01:39. The train was delayed for over two hours. It was finally cancelled, and they ordered taxis for us to get home. I left Euston about 03:45am. Arrived home about 06:00am. I applied for my rail refund, and they refused. They said that they could not find my journey that was delayed by more than 15 minutes. The cheek these people have is outrageous. They had a whole train delayed by about two hours and then cancelled it and lie that they cannot find any such delay shows how despicable this service is. Use them at your own risk! They even limit how you can present evidence to prove that they are lying.

Gave me the wrong fine category for a missing railcard ( that I had paid for, but the railcard guys had not sent in a code for over 4 days). Then I couldn't appeal it properly because the officer had said something to me (that i just needed to upload the railcard), but the online appeal system kept rejecting the appeal. I guess she wasn't trained (was acting like she was in a cop movie tho)

I hope WMR rots for harassing people and trumping up penalties to pay themselves and their rich overlords

I’m sure anyone reading this will be aware of the sheer incompetence of West Midlands railway. Sunday 26th October 2025, trains between Northampton and London Euston cancelled since 7am due to ‘overrunning engineering works’. No information, no alternatives. Northampton station jam-packed with frustrated, tired passengers. What an absolute joke. If the government is serious about getting people out of their cars and on to public transport, they need to step in pronto and take the franchise away from this bunch of clowns!

How are you meant to make plans when the trains are constantly cancelled or late. Terrible service.

First this was a brand new Train, it got delayed at every station and the train driver blamed it on kids pressing the open door button? So much so he had to cancel 6 stops on route to Northampton from Euston.
Also this is the second time the carriages where freezing cold !! It's 5 degrees outside and you can feel the vents blowing cold ffs.
Terrible Journey.

I travelled on the West Midlands train from 1832 Stafford to Euston and the floor carriages was covered in empty bags ,cups takeaway boxes beer cans , half eaten food , it was like a refuse Centre . Totally disgusting and a health hazard.i gave up trying to find a clean carriage so had to sit amongst filth

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!