First Great Western Reviews

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 ...  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 ...  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 ...  Read the complete review

I have used First Great Western only a couple of times and have never had a bad experince, in fact its been pretty good. With that train company I have managed to find a service I no longer expected to find in this country - an overnight sleeper. In the summer I caught the Night Riveria service from Paddington to St Ives and it was great. It ...  Read the complete review

First Great Western Trains are operated by the First Group an Aberdeen trasport giant which not only operates a significant part of the rail network, but much of the bus one as well. As a company it has been in existence for 20 years. My experience of First Western Trains however is along what used to be one of Great Western's main ...  Read the complete review

As I spend many, many days travelling up and down the country, I'm very familiar with the First Great Western service as I live in the south west. Often it is my beginning train service to get to a main station before continuing my journey north. The First Great Western trains are quite distinctive, being a purple-y blue colour with ...  Read the complete review

Most of my experiences of travelling by train in the past have been with South West Trains or Southern, neither of which has impressed me with punctuality. More recently, I have travelled several times with First Great Western from Portsmouth to Bristol; punctuality has been a strong point, but there is room for improvement in other ...  Read the complete review

I have only ever been on 2 first western trains as my experiences were so bad! I was travelling from london to oxford during rush hour, i use trains regularly so i'm not bothered about having to stand or a train being busy but this train there was not room for a single person but we had to get on that train, a nice gentleman managed to squeeze me ...  Read the complete review

To get to work by car is an absolute nightmare, my journey is about 10 miles, and depending on the weather and time of the journey this has taken anywhere between half an hour and nearly two hours! Then on top of that there are petrol costs, parking costs, and wear and tear, and running costs of the car. Using a car to commute is therefore ...  Read the complete review

First Great Western I am not a great traveller but do like visiting other places and experiences different cultures. Although South Wales is only over the river the culture different. My partner and I decided to travel with First Great Western on a day trip to Cardiff, simple because of convience. We didn't want the hassle of ...  Read the complete review

I really can't begin to tell you how bad First Great Western train services are. It really doesn't seem possible that in the 21st century, a company is allowed to operate so badly without interferance of hindrance. I occasionally travel up to Reading or down to Bristol and in both cases, I find the trains to be dirty, poorly maintained and ...  Read the complete review

First Great Western are one of the poorest service providers in my opinion. It is regularly advertised that cheap tickets are available on many routes, but this is rarely the case. The trains are not overly comfortable and the carrages are often cramped and overloaded with people and baggage. In true reality the services are often ...  Read the complete review

There are a number of benefits to travelling with first great western. If you book in advance you can get really cheap first class tickets which will get you free food, drink and even wine if you travel at the right time or you can buy really really cheap standard class tickets. However, for the most part first great western are over priced ...  Read the complete review

First Great Western are a train company which runs on the GWR line between London and Swansea in Wales and Penzance in Cornwall. They also run several branch lines, such as the Maritime Line in Cornwall and the Severn Beach Line in Bristol. Whilst not a frequent user of the railways, I still take part in at least 20 journeys a year ...  Read the complete review

FIRST GREAT WESTERN ARE ONE OF THE WORSET TRAIN COMPAINES IN THE UK THEY CANT RUN TRAINS ON TIME OR AT ALL THEY JUST CANCEL THEM AT NO NOTICE THERE STAFF ARE RUDE FIRST CLKASS IS LIKE SECOND CLASS AND WELL STANDARD WELL COWS GET BETTER TREATMENT IN THEIR VANS ALL I CAN SAY IS PLS DONT TRAVEL WITH THEM AND I HOPE THAT THE GOVERMENT WILL MAKE SURE ...  Read the complete review

Now, I'm not normally one to slate something so much, but First Great Western are wholy deserving of this. I was travelling las month down from London back home, and I had paid £40 for my ticket, I expected comfort. Did I get comfort? No!!! About an hour in, I went and used the loo, and the lock was broken, so while I was ...  Read the complete review

When my parents and I go to London we go by train as we don't want to be stuck in traffic. We always take the Cardiff-London and London-Cardiff route with First Great Western. I am writing about my journey in October 2002 for my Birthday. I love London and we stayed there for 4 nights. First Great Western are also phasing out their old trains ...  Read the complete review

Oh Dear Oh Dear. Let me tell you about Great Western I moved to Bristol 2 months ago, at exactly the same time as I got a new job in Oxford (don't ask!). I accepted the job, because I saw that there was a reasonable *direct* service between the 2 cities, and I would be able to commute between the two. That would be the 7.15 in the ...  Read the complete review

Did you know you can put your car on the train to go down to Cornwall? No, I bet you didn't, and neither did I, thinking that motor-rail was far too sensible an idea to be adopted by UK train networks, despite its popularity in Europe. Admittedly, the distances in the UK are generally shorter, so you never have to drive quite as far ...  Read the complete review

A recent early morning start in Central London and my normal idea of using a car to travel everywhere that my legs won't take me imminently went well and truly out of the window - even for me, a driving fanatic, the prospect of driving around streets I didn't know choc a block with hardened commuters and business people, finding car ...  Read the complete review