South West Trains > Reviews > Get your act together SW Trains...

Author's product rating:   

Frequency of trains	Satisfactory
Reliability of trains	Mostly on time
Comfort of trains	Slightly uncomfortable
On-board facilities	Very poor

Advantages:	Good Staff, Gets you from A to B
Disadvantages:	poor facilities and conditions .  Very old fashioned and needs improving fast !

Recommend to potential buyers:

no

Full review

After reading many opinions from other people regarding South West Trains, i have to agree with the people who havent given the SW Trains a good rating because they are very poor at the moment.

From when i was a small kid (about 10 yrs ago) i hardly ever went on trains but when i did i used to love it and always wanted to be a train driver. Well havent those years changed my opinion drastically.

Having been to a number of stations i feel that many train stations such as Southampton Central are becoming rather old fashioned and are really in need of a make over. With Southampton offering very few seating places for the public (such as around 2/3 benches for each platform) i feel that with many delays etc it would be better for the train users to have more seating facilities. Also the prices for coffee, food at several stations such as Southampton, Brighton are very high and many times customers over look buying food from the stations due to the heavy amount of cash they would have to pay.

Having recently started going on trains more often to visit my girlfriend, ive become very familiar with a number of trains ranging from new trains to the old slam door trains. I am going to focus my opinion on the old slam door trains.

As soon as the train pulls up, you have to basically avoid all the doors which suddenly fly open and a sudden rush of people exiting the doors, as soon as they avoid you with a few inches to spare...you know that this trip isnt going to be an enjoyable trip.

With so many people catching trains, there is a task for people just to find a seat which could involve people walking up and down 3+ carriages just to find a seat which is truely ridiculous especially if you have children and a lot of luggage such as prams etc.

When i found a seat the other day on the train there was so much rubbish stuffed down the edge of the seat such as semi eaten sandwiches, crisp packets and also graffited seats with pen marks which made my trip on the train more unenjoyable than i wanted. With the fact that british trains is already going downhill i would have thought that the staff would at least make it that we can sit in a nice enviroment but i guess not. Also if people who may have a bad back then i suggest that you get somebody to check the seat before you sit down cause i had to sit for 2hrs in a very very low seat which made my back ache for hours after i got off the train.

The toilets are horrible, hot water doesnt work properly, toilet seats had grafeti on and it took 4 times for the chain to flush properly. Also they were very cramped.

I need a question answered aswell - Do trains actually or meant to sell refreshments?? cause ive heard people say they do but ive yet to see a train to do so! or is the half eaten food the refreshments?? cause the way the service on the trains is going - id probably expect that.

Im glad to say though that the staff are very well mannered and also they are very useful in helping people who either are not train regulars, forign people and also disabled people. I have even seen the train driver talk to a women who was very worried about being on the train and told her that it is very safe etc and for the drivr to come out of his way just to do that has total respect from me.

Overall trains need to be improved, re-designed and made safe for train users.

S W Trains get your act together!