Great Western Railway First Class Lounge — Restaurant in London

On 28 July 2022, I was subjected to degrading and upsetting behaviour by a GWR staff member.

I was unable to scan my eTicket to leave the platform side, so I queued up to get help from the GWR staff member.

At least one customer pushed in front of me. The GWR staff member allowed this to happen. When I came to the front of the queue, another customer, who had been idle and allowed several customers to go before them, suddenly berated me for pushing in front. I apologised for not noticing this customer.

When I approached the GWR staff member for help with my ticket, I was told to scan it. I tried to explain that I'd already done this but the staff member was disinterested.

When I unsuccessfully scanned my ticket a second time, the GWR staff member finally decided to do something to help me progress. Unexpectedly, the staff member decided to put on their glasses to carefully inspect my eTicket, something which they did not do for other passengers with ticket scanning issues.

When I passed through the ticket barriers, the GWR staff member berated me for pushing in front of the previously-mentioned customer. Given that other customers had pushed in front of me without challenge, I found the GWR staff member's intervention to be nonsensical and upsetting.

When I approached the station helpdesk to raise a complaint, I was instructed to re-approach the GWR staff member I wanted to complain about in order to raise my complaint. I challenged this but was told again to do as instructed.

I re-approached the GWR staff member to advise that I wanted to raise a formal complaint against their conduct. The GWR staff member appeared indignant and stormed off to get another member of staff to take my complaint. I could hear raised voices behind the ticket barrier wall.

When I raised an online formal complaint against GWR and their staff, I waited over 4 weeks to receive an acknowledgement of my complaint.

GWR failed to offer any compensation for the experience I had with their staff. This was because they "don’t offer compensation for staff complaints".

I decided to take my formal complaint to the Rail Ombudsman. GWR decided to offer £25 in rail vouchers as compensation. I declined, because I did not value my upset at £25 and I did not want "store credit" for a company I am actively avoiding.

If GWR employ staff like the one who bullied me, with that person possibly being a supervisor, then it speaks volumes about the calibre of people that GWR employs.

Needless to say, I do not recommend GWR (Great Western...

I recently travelled from Bath Spa to London Paddington on a Saturday evening in GWR First Class, reaching Paddington around 8.45 pm. The train journey itself was smooth and comfortable, and the onboard staff were polite and professional, so I was happy with that part of the experience.

However, my experience at the First Class lounge in Paddington was disappointing. When I arrived, the staff seemed hesitant and unfriendly, almost as if they assumed I didn’t have a valid ticket. Once I showed my ticket, it was fine, but the whole interaction created a rather hostile atmosphere. I genuinely feel there should be a proper system in place, either a scanner or someone standing outside to check tickets so that passengers don’t have to go through that awkwardness. On top of that, I feel the staff really need proper customer service training, because passengers are paying extra for comfort and service, and after a long journey at the end of the day no one wants to deal with unkind staff.

Inside, the lounge itself was also below expectations. The toilets were not maintained properly, and the general environment felt quite chaotic when I entered. Although some drinks were available, it wasn’t the kind of calm or comfortable space one would expect after paying extra. In fact, the lounge at Bath Spa station, which is free for everyone, felt far cleaner, more welcoming, and better equipped with things like charging points on every seat. By comparison, the Paddington First Class lounge was underwhelming, and I ended up leaving after just 5–10 minutes.

I am giving 3 out of 5 stars only because the train experience was nice. I hope GWR can take this feedback on board, as improving both the service and the facilities in the lounge would really make a big difference to the...

On the spur of the moment, while spending a few days in London, we decided to make a quick Saturday overnight trip to Bath. So, we took the GWR on Saturday, October 28.2017. The train journey took about an hour and a half from Paddington Station in London and we were in Bath about lunch time.

I must warn you that travelling on GWR trains on a Saturday or Sunday is both stressful and chaotic. We had booked front-facing reserved seats and got neither. The train seemed over-booked and people who had our seats refused to move. Luckily, we were able to to find two free seats and just sat down. There were many standing and the impression I got was that it was a free for all and those who sat down claimed the seats as their own. I was hoping that a Train Master would soon be making his way through the train to check the tickets and sort out the problems but no Train Master made the rounds. I guess, GWR's plan was to over-book and stay away from the Madding Crowd.

All in all, it was a throughly frustrating experience. If you have to have to travel on GWR, don't bother to pay for the higher priced reserved seats. It's a shambles over the weekend and it's best for your sanity to go with the flow. The journey back from Bath to Paddington Station on Sunday was equally chaotic. So this seems to be GWR's standard of service. Truly...