South West Trains > Reviews > Third world train company

Author's product rating:   

Frequency of trains	Very inadequate
Reliability of trains	Occasionally on time
Comfort of trains	Very uncomfortable
On-board facilities	Very poor

Advantages:	Absolutely NONE
Disadvantages:	Exepensive, unreliable, filthy

Recommend to potential buyers:

no

Full review

I'm not surprised to see that no-one else has good things to say about south west trains. I regularly communte from Camberley to Richmond and I used to brave the train but I find driving there must more comfortable, despite the boredom of sitting in traffic jams on the M3.

Are all their stations as grim as the ones that I see? The facilities are generally limited (no news kiosk) and the stations are grimy. Then you have the joy of waiting for your train - you could be waiting some time. Generally in the morning I find the first train isn't too bad although they do seem to suffer from staff shortages regularly - trains are cancelled far too often due to waiting for train staff. You also have to queue for ages to get your ticket - the automatic machines never work when there is a queue.

When your train pulls in you'll be in for a shock. They're truly disgusting! They are so filthy that you can't see out the windows at all. I always remember to wear darker clothes as the seats are more unclean than your average park bench. There will often be rubbish all over the place - don't put your bags on the floor as someones abandoned coffee could be there! If you get a seat, you'll be short of space. I'm much smaller than the average adult and still find myself VERY squashed and fighting for legroom. There's not enough space for bags either and EVERYONE seems to have a large laptop bag to stow-away.

If there's any delay you won't be given a reason on the tannoy so everyone sits on the train left wondering what on earth is going on - and are we ever going to get home tonight?

The information boards on the platform are unreliable.

Apart from all of this - wonderful service!