First Great Western

I have been using First Great Western for around one trip a fortnight for the past 6 months, traveling between Wales and London. Usually traveling on the cheaper Super Saver trains. The cost is usually a decent amount, around £15-£20 return pre-booked or £40 on the day return. I should make clear that I use a Young persons railcard which I highly recommend. Having spent many a long trip traveling on East Coast, GNER, Virgin, Cross Country, Transpennine and National Express I have a decent comparison for First Great Western. Overall the trains are of decent quality and seats are quite comfortable, with and without a table. Most of the trains carry ...  Read the complete review

I have travelled on First Great Western Trains many, many times over the last six years, and now use them once a month to get from Bristol to London Paddington. I generally travel on weekends, usually leaving Bristol on a Friday afternoon and returning on Sunday evening. The First Great Western train network is ever-growing and now traverses the entire south-west, and far beyond. Overall, I find that First Great Western trains are punctual, reliable and arrive at their destination on time. However, this mostly only applies to their major route services. Those which pass through small stations tend to be out of date trains that don't have enough carriages and ...  Read the complete review

I am a commuter who does the Reading to Paddington route Monday - Thursday before 8am and after 6pm and am sadly tied to using the ever infuriating First Great Western service. Although they claim to be on time for 95% of their journeys, sadly not one of these includes my trains. I am very rarely at Paddington for 8:08, nor does my train reach Reading on time either. This wouldn't ordinarily matter, I like most people can handle a 2-10 minute delay, however it's the lack of customer service response when their constant delays are pointed out to them which is infuriating. They do not admit they are unable to run a commuter route - if you complain you will ...  Read the complete review

First Great Western is a company I seem to be travelling with quite a lot these days, and I must say the travel experience with them seems to be improving. The long distance inter city routes seem to be pretty good - they are not too expensive, the trains are fairly comfortable and the service seems to be quite punctual. The only real problem is that during peak times the trains are over capacity and quite a few people have to stand - the only way around this is to book in advance, which I tend to do for cost reasons when going long distances. The shorter distance routes are a slightly different story, however. I'm not sure where they got the ...  Read the complete review

I am a regular traveller on the First Great Western service from Penzance to London Paddington. I get on at Plymouth and have been travelling this route for the past 4 years every 2 - 3 months. I usually travel on a Friday evening after 4pm and return a Sunday evening or Monday morning. So i travel at peak times which is the worst time to travel on this service. Every time i use this service there are people standing in the aisles. You must made a reservation to enjoy this service (i say enjoy lightly) as it takes 3 and a half hours. So you dont want to start the service standing i promise you. This train i usually 6 or 7 carriages long but this ...  Read the complete review