SWR Help Bewertungen 

While on holiday in this region thought for a change me and my wife would have a day travelling on SWR railway.
No particular destination just sitting on the train and watching the world go by.
On searching the internet I found they do a rangers and rovers ticket just like our local Network Greater Anglia .
So we walked to Winchester station and went to the ticket office,
A lovely lady tried to help us but had trouble finding what we wanted, I’m guessing her manager or supervisor was standing next to her.
She said she had sold this type of ticket the other day but couldn’t find it on the system.
The supervisor said to me we’re do you want to go I said nowhere in particular.
He then said we don’t do that type of ticket, I replied yes you do and also the lady said yes I sold one the other day.
Then I showed our train network ticket and what It covers.
Again he said we’re are you going 🤦‍♂️.
I said again just wanted to travel around on your network.
Bottom line the lady still wanted to help us but her supervisor or manager wasn’t being very helpful and also hadn’t got a clue about their own tickets they sell ,
Buy this time a long cue had developed so we decided to call it a day.
Unbelievable,
No wonder this train company gets so poor reviews.
And just to add the lovely lady tried to get the map up on her system what area covered but couldn’t even get that to work.

To start with, as many others have stated, if there was a "Zero Stars" option, I would have most certainly used it! - My wife and I were booked on a cruise from Southampton and travelled from Ipswich to Southampton on the outward journey via Liverpool Street, Elizabeth line to Reading and then finally the SWR train from Reading to Southampton as SWR has bus replacements for a month between London Waterloo and Southampton. The train from Reading was short, full and standing with no places whatsoever to locate mid to large cases and resembled a "Kolkata" local service - Our return journey on the 21st June was equally as unpleasant or more so. As Southampton has an enormous Cruise Terminal, Southampton Central platforms were full of passengers just off the ships , most with numerous large cases, Lifts at the Station were out of order so heavy cases had to be dragged up and down stairs by all, the train turned up, all 5 coaches!! and was once again full and standing with no where again to put any mid size or larger suitcases. The guard made copious announcements to not place cases on seats or in the gangways but where else were passengers to place them, on the roof??, miserable and unhelpful staff, no refreshments as usual (as SWR never resumed them after Covid!!) so all together another appalling journey into London Waterloo. SWR, for goodness sake, make your trains 10 coaches from Southampton, not Eastleigh! and provide areas for passengers luggage. SWR are indeed shockingly bad compared to other Rail Companies.

I'd like to thank swr for unbelievably unpleasant 3 hour journey from Exeter to Woking. Train full of people, stinky carriages, no Aircon!!! Just FYI, for half the price in Poland a little longer distance journey in perfectly air conditioned 1st class, high speed train. The service you provide is at lowest levels possible...

I boarded my SWR train this morning with a simple dream: a peaceful journey.

Coffee in hand. Headphones on. Minding my own business.

Then it began.

"Please do not leave your luggage unattended."

Fair enough.

Thirty seconds later:

"Please mind the gap."

Of course.

A minute later:

"If you see something suspicious..."

Noted.

Then another announcement. And another. And another.

By the time we reached the next station, I felt less like a passenger and more like a contestant trapped in a live-action public address system.

At one point I became genuinely concerned that if the train ever fell silent for more than 90 seconds, an emergency team would be dispatched to investigate.

The constant announcements from both the automated system and train guards are relentless. Many are repetitive, predictable, and delivered so frequently that they stop being informative and become background noise. Ironically, the more announcements there are, the less likely passengers are to pay attention when something genuinely important is being communicated.

Britain is a nation that values queues, cups of tea, and the rare luxury of a little peace and quiet. Yet travelling with SWR often feels like being stuck inside a never-ending podcast that nobody subscribed to.

Passengers understand the need for safety announcements and service updates. Nobody is asking for complete silence. But there must be a middle ground between "essential information" and "continuous commentary on the existence of trains."

Please give passengers some breathing space. A quieter journey would not only be more pleasant—it would make important announcements stand out when they genuinely matter.

Until then, I'll continue boarding each SWR train wondering whether I'm travelling to London or sitting my final exam in "See It. Say It. Sorted." Studies.

Consistently awful, frequent delays, frequent overcrowding. I travel all over the country & across Europe by rail & they are the worst, not just a little bit, but by orders of magnitude. Truly, properly awful. Like if Liz Truss would run a train operator - really that bad.
The train staff are great, I feel for them.

Every week I get the same train. Every week they apologize about it being cramped and uncomfortable and year after year they change nothing, other than putting prices up.

It's an insult, I don't really know why I'm writing this though as they don't care. If they cared they would change something..just another UK service that's run into the ground by incompetent people who have no pride!

My train was delayed by 10 min which made me miss my connecting train to Gatwick. When my train finally arrived it completely missed my stop and waisted another 5 min at another station. It took me 30 min longer than it should have to get to a station that is only 4 stops away. I hope they do something about this and really fix their issues with delays and cancellations as the south westerns stock of trains are quite nice and when working it is efficient. It’s a shame there services are poor.

If I could give it zero stars I would!!

The app is terrible! It often doesn’t load or decides that “delivery method is not available “.

It is very disappointing.

The most incompetent team is customer service. Full of people that have no ideea what they are doing. Rude, arogant and INCOMPETENT!
no respect for anything, no knowledge.
Call them, they are busy doing refunds and if you listen the message to the end they don't do refunds on phone.
All customer service staff there should be out and find better qualified and civilised staff.

3 trains were cancelled over the span of an hour with no apology or form of compensation. I only intended to travel 10 minutes for 2 stops but this somehow ended up taking an entire hour to complete. Absolutely unprofessional. Due to the service being so consistently appalling i dont see why southwestern rails cant issue refunds. I cannot believe this railway service still exists.

I don’t expect a reply, I don’t expect SWR even care. Just another inflation busting price rise in the near future, over crowded carriages and late trains.

It takes me on average an hour to get to work, and 100 mins to get home from work. Excuses include, sign faults, train faults, bad weather and leaves on the track, to name but a few; and I can’t even get a seat. With the constant sound on the tannoy of being finned if I don’t have a valid ticket.

Tried to buy a ticket on the app and the transaction failed, therefore purchased the ticket at the station. Four hours later had an email confirming my online purchase, which means I have paid twice for 2 tickets.
Tried to call to sort a refund - SWR cannot issue refunds over the phone. Tried to fill in the online form - form is not working and doesn't recognise either ticket reference.
Clearly SWR will actively discourage any chance of receiving a refund, for an error which is clearly theirs.
I will now have to waste my time going to the ticket office.

Incredible help from Robert at Clapham Junction!I accidentally dropped my phone onto the tracks on Sunday 7 June, and Robert was absolutely wonderful. He handled the stressful situation safely, quickly, and with a great attitude. It’s rare to see such outstanding customer care these days. Thank you so much, Robert, for retrieving my phone!

On 25 May 2026, there were lots of train issues. We were lucky to take a train at around 16:23 from New Malden to Vauxhall, as no other trains ran until later than evening. However, we couldn't disembark the train as the doors wouldn't open. The button was red when pushing it, so we had to barge past people and step on feet, running through half the train to get off at another door and jump off the train as the door closed on us. I am not a sprightly person and have ongoing knee issues, so this was terrible and caused some pain.

I reported this issue and my pain via the SWR website and they sent me a half-hearted response saying the faulty door would be noticed after the final journey that evening, so it'll be sorted.

Yesterday on 7 June, I was waiting to board the 11:44 at Vauxhall and the train before mine had faulty doors. People could not get off or board via certain doors. The departure was delayed by 3-4 minutes. I took the train behind that one and we ended up stuck on the line, just before Wimbledon. When we got into Wimbledon, the train was cancelled and we had to disembark and take the next train. I was 30 minutes late meeting my mother in her late 70s, who had to wait outside in the freezing cold.

This train line is not fit for purpose - regularly running trains with faulty doors. These trains aren't even old, so they're clearly not serviced properly.

I live in Hampton Court.

I only take the train in the weekends to go to Waterloo

So often, this train is not operating on the weekends

It is a really bad service

Constant delays and cancellations. An absolute joke of a service. Completely unreliable and one of the worst public services in not only the UK but probably the whole world. Just absolutely disgraceful.

This is a service that runs one of the busiest services into London Waterloo and nearly every single journey is either delayed massively or cancelled for trivial and unfair reasons. The delay repay compensated barely anything making it a complete waste of time. We pay outrageously high amounts for the train tickets on these services just to have to stand in the aisles on a fully packed train with unstable wifi networks, no working air con and terrible communication. It’s just not got enough.

You get no compensation for having no seat compared to those who do. I’ve frequently travelled on South Western Railway trains where there have been no seats available for journey that last over an hour. It’s appaling standards and you get no form of compensation or apology.

The worst thing is that it’s not even hard to stop this happening. Just stop bookings for a train that go beyond the max number of seats available. It’s as simple as that.

Choose South Western Railway if you want appaling service, no seat, overpriced tickets and the worst service provided by any UK company. An absolute joke and South Western Railway should be ashamed of themselves.

Wow, another Friday and another shit experience in using southwestern railwys

Notice how they never look at reviews. Money grabbing gits. Dont care about public.raise prices & reduce services .disgusting attitude

Not worth one star, to be honest. Giving it one star is probably the most generous performance review this train service has ever received.

The price of a train ticket on Southwestern Rail is so high that even when the ticket turns out to be invalid and needs refunding, you’ve still somehow lost money and are out of packet.

You can often fly to Europe and back for less than it costs to travel four stops on a SWR train.

Delays are as predictable as summer rain in England. If you’re planning a rail journey, you’ve got a better chance of winning the lottery with a ticket you found in a public toilet than arriving at your destination at the scheduled time.

And when the train finally does arrive, god forbid, you’ll enjoy fewer rights and less personal space than a tuna packed into a tin.

In Asia and Africa, the joke is that Britain likes to brag about its modern trains.

The conversation goes something like this:

Brit: “Our trains are incredibly modern.”

Asian and African commuters: “Do they arrive?”

Brit: “Let’s not change the subject.”

The SWR network rail is the only place where you can pay first-class prices for a masterclass in disappointment. And that’s an understatement.

From the words of Oscar Wilde

I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train.

I’d like to add ‘On the SWR you’ll need two diaries your journey will and can always be double as long if you’re lucky’

The delay frequency for trains has increase many folds. Cleanliness is bad and there is no provision of refund if you miss your connecting train.