First Great Western

During a recent trip to the UK, I used First Great Western during an out-​and-​back trip from London.
The good news is that both trains departed on time.
On the way out of London, I needed to use the loo and asked an employee whether the train would have a toilet on board. She said it would.
In fact, the train had two toilets. Unfortunately, they were both out of service. I guess I should have asked whether the train would have any *functioning* toilets?
On the way back, signaling problems meant that our train limped back into London at a snail’s pace.
(Yep, just let that analogy of a limping snail sink in…)
Overall, I was less than impressed.

I have paid over £3000 for the chance to be late for everything. The train are always late leaving Paddington, these never anywhere to sit, pray you don’t have to travel in one of the air conditioning trains it never works and you can’t open the window.
I am just getting off the second train tonight to be cancelled and I am not impressed.

In my travels west of. London and Heathrow then back, FGW is the line of choice. Ive not attempted a sleeper car or first class but the normal/​average rider spaces are ok. It’s a bit on the worn, older side but it suffices. Some cars there’s no space for luggage so you just have to hold it tight. Definitely beats paying way more for a taxi or cab if time isnt of the most critical importance.

Heading out west in the UK from London usually requires a trip on the First Great Western. From taking my mom to Bath, visiting my cousin in Bristol, and spending weekends with the Welshman… First Great Western may have been my second most used train line. I myself have never experienced a delay or cancellation on this line, but when my mom and I were headed to Bath, one of their other trains had broken down and we took on those passengers. It was standing room only and I am so glad that it wasn’t our train that broke down.
The staff at the ticket counter at Paddington could use a course in customer service and that’s why I didn’t give a full five stars. I know working a ticket counter with tourists asking the same dumb questions day in and day out can get old, but if the people at East Coast can be jolly and helpful with delays and problems all over the place… then First Great Western can too! I also think they need to up their staffing during peak hours… one person for a line out the door is just inviting strongly worded letters.
The trains themselves… well they’re not the newest and cleanest trains, but they are also not the worst trains I have ever been on. They have decent sized luggage racks at the end of the cars so there aren’t heaps of bags just hanging out in the vestibules. This is also another train company that doesn’t accept American credit cards, which is also another issue in my book. If they had, I wouldn’t have had to encounter the grouchy staff member at the ticket desk at Paddington… and yes I tried the automated kiosks, but there was an error message with my card. Other times I booked on
and paid the minimal fee to avoid the ticket counter.

I commuted on First Great Western (FGW) every workday for a period of six months from Paddington to Oxfordshire last year. It’s not an experience I want to re-​live.
The things I liked:
–the 8 seats in each carriage with extra leg room for elderly or disabled people. As a gentleman of some height, these seats were invaluable for me;
–The excellent bike policy: In theory spaces for non-​folding bikes have to be reserved at a small charge (£2). In practice it operates on a first-​come, first-​serve basis, meaning that I was almost always able to get my bike on the train at no cost. Further, the large number of people with folding bikes meant that there were always enough spaces for non-​folding bikes to go around;
–The regularity of the trains from the major stations on my route leaving Didcot Parkway for Paddington in the morning. This meant that if I wasn’t able to get on one train, it’d only be another 10 or so minutes to wait for another one;
–The excellent timetabling of connecting trains, with local stopping services scheduled to depart around 10 minutes after the scheduled arrival of faster services. When this worked, it made for really quick and convenient journeys from central London to rural Oxfordshire.
For the first month everything seemed to work perfectly. Then I started noticing problems:
–Delays started creeping in. At best this would only mean me missing my connecting local train, adding another 30 mins to my already 1.5 hr commute. At worst, it would leave me waiting with hundreds of other passengers at London Paddington for hours wondering what on earth was going on. Sometimes the reason was out of FGW’s control, other times it was squarely their fault (staff absences, broken trains). No compensation was ever forthcoming, just «apologies for any convenience you may have suffered». Gee, thanks.
–The Paddington-​Oxford route was particularly bad for some reason, reliably incurring delays. Paddington-​Didcot was slightly better;
–Paddington-​Oxford services between 7:30pm-10:45pm are really sparse and/​or poorly connected, either forcing extended waits in Paddington or longer journeys than usual;
–Sunday services suck. Local services tend to be replaced with ‘rail replacement buses’ and there are less fast services. Argh!
–The normal seats have far too little leg-​room for those long of leg. And noticeably less than the trains of some of the other train companies e.g. East Coast;
Overall? I don’t mind using them for the odd trip, but I’d never want to rely on them day-​in, day-​out. Plus, my recent discovery that the 24 hr Oxford tube takes non-​folding bikes means that even my casual use of FGW’s services will become less frequent.

Unfortunately, I’m going to have to dock First Great Western a star purely on the basis of their website and customer services.
My friends and I have been trying to book the sleeper train for the next leg of the Cornish coastal walk that we plan to do in September. The tickets only go on sale 12 weeks before departure and they encourage you to book as early as possible to get the cheapest fares.
12 weeks to the day we were on the website trying to book but it was extremely complicated to book two twin cabins without first getting supplements and then getting sleeper add on’s. On calling them we were told we couldn’t purchase the return tickets as the return journey was still more than 12 weeks away. At this point, we went back on to the website to book the single journey there and the prices had more than doubled! (this was only one day later that the 12 week window!).
We then tried to book the return leg exactly 12 weeks to the day but couldn’t manage it on line — for some reason, its only possible to book these tickets over the phone. I’ve just spent the last three days trying to contact customer services but seem to get stuck in an endless queue.
Today, I finally managed to speak to someone. Unfortunately, that person didn’t really speak much English and couldn’t understand that I wanted sleeper tickets that included a bed!!! I finally got my message across, and surprise surprise the tickets had yet again doubled in price! Why advertise the cheap tickets when its actually impossible to purchase them?
My friend has also written them a letter of complaint after the first issues but this has yet to be acknowledged.
So in conclusion, your sleeper train is fantastic but you customer services are appalling — rant over!

Love ‘em or hate ‘em, it doesn’t matter. First Great Western, you continue to exist no matter what we, your passengers, think of you. Perhaps I don’t ride your rails as often as Mathew O., who buys monthly tickets, and I haven’t had a calamity nearly as bad as Leon C, who was delayed several hours. But in the last few months, I feel that I’ve gotten to know you just a bit.
Riding from Reading into London/​Paddington at least twice a month in the last six months, a few «short» journeys from Reading to West Drayton and a vacation trip out to Bath, I’ve been able to contrast and compare the long runs to the short runs, the Mark 3 coaches to the Class 165’s. A shout out to
!
Consistently, the trains are as clean as you can expect for something in heavy use. The stations are well maintained and clean (though the lack of rubbish bins drives me nuts). The ticket barriers usually work, though not consistently enough that I can skip buying a ticket. The crews are polite and deferential when they pass through checking tickets.
But the most important requirements of any train system are timeliness. scheduling and comfort:
— On timeliness, I award you a B+, as my 60 or so trips have never been delayed more than a few minutes. Even in the rain, my longest run was never more than 15 minutes late (though on a 25 mile trip, that’s saying something).
— On comfort, I award a B. While the seats are clean, on the 165’s, they are usually too close together for a 6 foot tall American to sit comfortably and I end up at an angle taking up two seats. On the class 3’s, I usually do okay at least for the shorter journeys.
— On schedule, I award an A-​. The London to Reading routes are very popular and there are *always* trains. We are fortunate to never have a «last train of the night» as they run out to Swansea and Cardiff and Weston-​super-​Mare all day and all night. I have, however, been stuck on the «local» at midnight, a journey that usually takes 25 minutes that was extended to 52 minutes for stops at all and sundry between London and Reading.
So for you, FGW, I award three stars. You are A-​OK and we Readingers (Readingites? Readingees? Readers?) are fortunate to have you.

First Great Western, you suck! Arriving at Paddington Station, I was met by hordes of people frustrated at the lock down on trains due to a fire near a gas station. Ooops! On dragging the response of «there’ll be no trains for ages,» from the super specific attendant, I took the tube to Ealing Broadway. After arriving at Ealing Broadway, the fun truly began. My train was still delayed. For 15mins, every time the clock hit the arrival time, the arrival time went back a minute. It was like cat and mouse. Getting tired of this, the arrival time decided to no longer change, meaning our trains would now be arriving in the past. Excellent! After numerous trains whizzed past without stopping, one eventually did. In the two minutes the train sat on the platform, the platform attendant disappeared and the information board changed its destination three times. «Where the funk are you going train?’ I got on and off, on and off, eventually deciding to stay off as the train didn’t seem to be going my way. The train left, the attendant appeared. I asked him if the train now departing the platform was going to my stop? He said yes. I should of unleashed a devastating Spinning Bird Kick there and then, but I fought the blistering desire to destroy and controlled myself. He politely told me there would be another train in 5mins. 12mins later my train arrived. After sitting on the platform, opening and closing its doors for a few more minutes like an epileptic Thomas the Tank engine, it set off.
You displease me First Great Western, you displease me.

This morning First Great Western charged me £325 for a monthly ticket to travel 25 minutes out of London. Just take that in for a second: £4k a year. For a 25-​minute train journey.
This evening that journey took me over 2-​hours. For the second time in as many weeks.
I missed Unilocal football and am a sad bunny. First Great Western: Destroyer of dreams.