I guess most reviews come from the fact that people either have something really great they want to tell people about, or really bad that they want to moan about. To be honest I would love this to be a big rant about Great Western, but I'm going to keep my comments fair, because although they do a lot of things wrong, there are also some things that I do actually like about the way they run their service.
I started getting First Great Westerntrains from Reading a couple of months ago. I generally get the rush hour trains in and back, but I do also have experience of using their trains during off-peak hours as I used to travel a lot on them at the weekends last year. Generally I am travelling between Reading and London Paddington, but I have also taken trains to other stops around the area such as Oxford.
~~An
average day on the trains~~
When I get the train on a weekday I tend to use a week's travel card. This reduces the amount I have to spend and I guess is pretty good value. On average I pay just under £100/week to use the overground train to London and also the tubes between zones 1-6. This is really good value as if I want to go somewhere else in London I can use my normal card.
The other good thing about the service into London during weekdays during the rush hour is that the trains come really regularly. I'd say there is a fast train once every 10 mins or so. Also, it only takes about 30 mins to get into London. Compared to the stopping service this is really fast.
It is only one stop to London Paddington and generally the train comes into one of the main platforms (1-4) so that you are near all the main facilities in the main London station.
~~Downsides~~
Where this service starts to fail is when it comes to reliability. The amount of times I have turned up to the station and have found that the train has been vastly delayed is too many to count. But worse than this is that when these trains are delayed, there are so many people going through the station, that even if they get the train that comes 5-10 mins later, there are oiften twice as many people than their should be.
So often i find myself getting a later train then I'd planned to and being crammed onto the train with hundreds of other people and with absolutely no hope of getting a seat. I have got so used to this that I now try and gauge which carriage would be the best one to get and whereabouts to stand if I actually managed to squeeze on to the train.
I realise sometimes First Great Western can't help that their trains are late (if there has been a points failure or similar) but what I find really infuriating is that they have 3 carriages of first class seats on the 10-11 carriage trains. I have never seen any more than one carriage worth of first class passengers in the first class carriages and I think the train company would have much happier customers if they took awway some of these first class carriages and put in standard class ones instead. the trouble with first class carriages is that, not only are ordinary ticket holders not allowed to sit in them, they are also not allowed to stand in them. I have spent loads of journeys standing in the gap between carriages, next to the toilets when they could have been standing in the slightly nicer carpeted area of the first class carriages - or indeed sitting in an actual seat.
~~Upsides to First Great Western~~
When I have travelled on journeys outside of rush hour I have been able to appreciate the nice design of the seats and also the fact that each pair of seats often has access to a power supply. This is very useful for those with laptops or phones they have forgotten to charge. However, don't bank on being able to use them, because sometimes the electricity isn't connected!
I also like the spaces in some carriages with fold down seats for wheelchair users. Also, I have found the toilets aren't actually that bad and often have soap, water, toilet roll and even somewhere to dry your hands! There is usually a buffet car open on most trains I travel on, but the food and drinks, as per usual with a captive audience, are overpriced.
~~Final thoughts~~
I use Great Western trains because I have to for the routes I want to travel in the time I need to travel them in. I wouldn't recommend them, but then there's not really much choice. I like the comfort (if you actually get a seat) and the little fold-down trays by each seat. However, I find the manually operated heavy-duty slam doors difficult to open and the amount of people on the trains is sometimes unbearable.
I've complained about the service on one particularly late journey recently where I was late to work as a result of an extremely slow running train, but I am yet to hear if I will receive any compensation or not.
Ah...the joys of trains. Gotta love the monopoly side to these services, treating you bad and still making money. Great review.
Ayesha- 11.10.2008 15:37
I occasionally do the Reading-London journey and I completely agree that the amount of 1st class space is totally disproportionate to how many people can actually afford it. Ayesha x
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queenmaebh 13.07.2007 (13.07.2007)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of First Great Western
Advantages: Fast & Efficient, Plenty of Seats, Buffet's Good, Children's Activities Disadvantages: Maybe a tad expensive - though deals can be found (but not on my route!)
evesham1988la 23.08.2005 (24.08.2005)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of First Great Western
Advantages: Pleasent Staff, always there to help! Disadvantages: No leg room, very dated, uncomfortable seating, and not enough space to put your luggage.
Copie1990 23.11.2009 ·
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: somewhat helpful
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