Great Western Railway Reviews

According to the Bath station attendant who could not help me use the eticket I purchased, GreatWesternRailway and the GWR website are now owned by a different company. The refund process also seems to be a scam as they will charge you £10 to get a refund on your unusable ticket, if you’re lucky enough for the online refund portable to actually function. I’ve been trying for the last hour to register, submit, and upload all the info they require for refund and it still won’t accept my submission because there is no option for “nonfunctioning ticket” or “error with app”. To be clear, I actually purchased my tickets via GWR online directly, but was then told I need to download GreatWesternRailway to use it. In fact, neither the website nor GreatWesternRailway are of any use. Purchase your ticket at the station and save yourself a headache.

I wish I would’ve read the reviews before I attempted to buy three tickets: charges all pending on my credit card, but no tickets in the “my tickets” portion of GreatWesternRailway , nor have I received an email confirmation after the purchase. Ended up going to Paddington Station in person to buy tickets, with the other three tickets purchased on GreatWesternRailway still pending on my credit card. Help through the chat function says the charges will drop off, but who knows.
Absolutely unacceptable, do not use GreatWesternRailway if you are a non-UK visitor. As others have said, I am also currently in London so even if you try to make a purchase with your US credit card while you are physically in the city of London, you will be out of luck.

I have tried numerous times to download GreatWesternRailway to use the tickets I purchased via the website on my upcoming trip to UK, and it has never worked. Always says “Network Status Failed to Load”. Tried to get help from GWR and their only advice was to close GreatWesternRailway and try again. 100% useless.

Have spent over an hour trying to buy a ticket. Just keep sending me in circles. Making me pick pictures of crosswalks and bridges. Stuck on inputting my address for 30 minutes. Select purchase and it just keeps going back to address which is correct, but won’t tell me what’s wrong. Am now giving up. Utter waste of time. Also keeps saying password must be at least 8 letters when it’s 10. Worst ever. Hateful.

I bought my tickets online using the website a couple of weeks ago and selected the mobile ticket option. I arrive at the station and try and use GreatWesternRailway but it just throws an error stating “it works best in the UK”. While standing in London Paddington on 3.

Logging into GreatWesternRailway using Starbucks Wi-Fi, I can access my account but there are no tickets listed. They are there on the web version (which can only be used with GreatWesternRailway , of course).

Talked to the ticketing office however they were unable to help as “they do not have access to the mobile system”. Luckily I have the PDFs sent to my email, but this is an intolerable situation.

GWR do better.

I am able to log in on the web, but GreatWesternRailway keeps telling “We’re sorry but we can’t complete your request at the moment due to a technical issue, please try again later”.

How am I to retrieve my tickets other than going to the web and physically print them?

And oh yeah, the whole purchasing experience is messed up. He to use PayPal (otherwise it keeps taking you to that credit card details loop).

Purchases fail to complete. Despite this, multiple pending charges still show up on my payment cards even though I received no tickets. The website failed as well. I had to physically go to a station to get a ticket. I would avoid GreatWesternRailway and this company entirely if you can help it. Based on another review I read, this problem has persisted for over a year at least.

What a waste of time. Uploaded and deleted GreatWesternRailway three times, changed name and password three times. Finally get a so-called tech customer service person who says it’s an old problem and that the GWR app does not work with US iPhones. Had to buy the ticket from my computer, and print out the email. Then have to pick it up at the station. Completely ridiculous

Persistent login failures, and non acceptance of non UK credit cards . Utterly useless . The development team should consider beta testing GreatWesternRailway with someone who doesn’t have a UK number, not located in the UK and doesn’t have a UK credit card . I found work arounds but GreatWesternRailway was only tested with UK user base and doesn’t work for someone overseas. These issues have been on going for the last two years . Who is product managing GreatWesternRailway?

GWR is the only rail company that sells a ticket I need. I can’t purchase through GreatWesternRailway because of blocking prompts that I should use the GWR website if I’m not physically located in the UK. The website works up until I attempt to enter credit card info, at which point I get stuck in a refresh loop forever. Would give GreatWesternRailway zero stars if I could because now I can’t prepare for my UK transit until I’m physically in the country

GreatWesternRailway does not work for international travelers even if you are standing in London. We bought tickets on the website and it told us to download their crappy app to access our tickets but it says you have to be in the UK to access their app, which we are. I don’t see why the only 2 options to get your tickets are either using their dysfunctional app or picking them up in person when emailed tickets are just as, if not more viable and f an option but whatever

Unable to log in using GreatWesternRailway , same message as others have mentioned, therefore it’s not possible to download a purchased ticket. You guys at GWR need to look at the apps from rail companies in other countries - start with SBB in Switzerland to see how it’s done.

Update for version 4.13.2 of GreatWesternRailway :

Signing in is still impossible: “We’re sorry but we can’t complete your request at the moment due to a technical issue, please try again later”. Same message as before. Registering a new account is also impossible: “Marketing preferences are required for registration. Please Refresh”. Except when you refresh, nothing happens.

GreatWesternRailway is still a complete waste of time.

Update for version 4.26.1 of GreatWesternRailway :

Situation described above still exists. App is unusable. Don’t bother downloading it.

I’m a U.S. traveler and for some reason they have blocked usage outside of the UK. Fair enough but upon arriving in London GreatWesternRailway still doesn’t work. Reading the reviews this is a common and known problem. Extremely frustrating after international travel and little sleep.

My family and I missed our trains and reservations due to this problem. The solution is to not use GreatWesternRailway to view tickets. Refer to the old school PDF attached when the the tickets were first purchased.

GWR, you know of the problem. Fix it!

Just when I needed it to work so I could make a last minute ticket change in the train station, GreatWesternRailway failed to allow me to log in. It wasn't a credentials problem since I was able to log in on my mobile browser. GreatWesternRailway failed to respond with anything other than a generic error message saying data could not be retrieved or something useless like that. Also was unable to get help changing my ticket from the chat agent I reached out to because they don’t have that access. All around a real disappointment.

Apparently, the website does not accept non-UK payment cards. But the website doesn’t mention this. It’s a poor website design - it has an option for entering an international address, so I entered my US address (and it has a drop down box to select the country). Then when I clicked Buy Now to proceed to the page where I expected to enter my payment card info, GreatWesternRailway just returned to the same screen where I entered my address - with my address now showing in the form - and doesn’t explain why I can’t proceed beyond that. I had to spend time in a Live Chat to be told that it’s probably the non-UK address that is preventing me from continuing.

I bought tickets online for GWR and it told me to view my tickets, I need to download GreatWesternRailway. Well I did that, but when I went to download my tickets, it told me I need to be in the UK (I’m in the US). What? Been traveling extensively my whole life and never heard of an app restricting its use by the country you’re in.

I’m trying to download tickets in advance because I bought them for the rest of my family who I will be meeting in London, but want to send them their tickets in case we somehow miss each other. This is a stupid feature that should be changed ASAP. Sounds like other similar complaints have fallen on deaf ears for years…

Well last month I was a GWR website I bought my tickets and I am all ready for my trip to England . When I bought the tickets I chose to see my tickets using GreatWesternRailway this is how I do with all my trips around the world much easier …Well I downloaded GreatWesternRailway and since then almost 3 weeks ago GreatWesternRailway is not working it has a message when I try to login saying that GreatWesternRailway has a technical issue and he’s being upgraded that moment… I called customer service they apologize 1 million times saying GreatWesternRailway is being updated but it has been three weeks come on … I am concerned and disappointed so finally I was able to print the copies and bring with me in case GreatWesternRailway ever finish it’s update

Purchased tickets online and needed GreatWesternRailway to download the tickets. When attempting to use GreatWesternRailway to get the tickets you get the message that GreatWesternRailway works “best” in the UK and try using the website. The website says to use GreatWesternRailway to download tickets. Well I’m in London and GreatWesternRailway still does not work.

Totally useless

GreatWesternRailway could be better if ticket information could be stored as an E-Ticket for your Apple Wallet so if I go through a dead zone or forgot to print it my ticket would still be accessible also it’s just more convenient having something important on a device you’d rarely loose

If Apple Pay could be added to GreatWesternRailway it would make it so much cooler.