Could do better (First Great Eastern Railway)

Member Name: paulie1975

Product:	First Great Eastern Railway
Date:	07/04/09 (62 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: They do refund for delays

Disadvantages: There are often delays, engineering works are too regular, not good value

First Great Eastern became One in 2004 and a new service was created running between Norwich and London Liverpool Street and all intervening stations in between. Having commuted from Ipswich to Liverpool Street for years I have to say that generally they are fairly good.

For around £5000 a year you get a season ticket allowing you on any train from Ipswich to London, this includes any stations between Ipswich and London, you can only sit in economy class but this is fine. Generally there are trolly staff offering drinks and food at highly inflated prices. I do have to say that the trains leave generally every 20 minutes to half hour, but from 6am in the morning and after 5pm at night even from Ipswich it can be a struggle getting a seat which means you then have a 60 to 90 minute commute stood up or sat on the carpeted area near the toilets between carriages which isn't ideal or good value for money, the trains are incredibly overcrowded by the time they reach Chelmsford.

One good point is that if the trains are delayed by over 30 minutes you can apply for a partial refund, as they are so often delayed or there are issues with track repairs I have often claimed back almost £200 a month due to this and things generally get worse in the summer for some reason. Engineering works are regular at weekends which makes the commute even worse with buses replacing trains and increasing journey time to nearer two hours.

Overall I would say the service is about average, I don't find it good and don't think its awful as there are systems in place to compensate me for delays, although the number of evenings i've lost due to train issues is silly!!

Summary: Not great but not as bad as some!