The Rail Passenger Rights and Obligations (PRO) Regulation is aimed at enhancing and strengthening the rights of rail passengers, particularly in the areas of information and ticketing provision, compensation and assistance, and provides rights for disabled persons and persons with reduced mobility.
As part of the PRO Regulation, train operators are required to publish an Annual Service Quality Report. Some of the information we have published here, can also be viewed within our Passenger’s Charter, Complaints Handling Procedure (PDF, 315 KB), and Accessible Travel Policy (PDF, 290 KB).
If you have any questions about the published information, please get in touch with our Customer Support team.
Provision of travel information during the journey
We know how important it is to keep you informed at all stages of your journey. We provide information:
- on GWR.com and the GWR app
- on posters on board our trains and at our stations
- on our social media channels
- through announcements on board our trains and at our stations
- through on board and station staff
How requests for information are handled at the station
You can obtain information and help at all our stations:
- posters and signs – they provide information about stations facilities, timetables, and how to contact us
- Help Points – available 24/7 and allow you to find out the latest information about your journey or speak to a member of staff
- GWR.com and the GWR app – provides live updates of train times and train running information
- Customer Support – available to provide information between 06:00 and 23:00 on 03457 000 125
- social media – available between 06:00 and 23:00 on Twitter @GWRhelp, Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp on 07890 608043
- Customer Ambassadors – dedicated to providing customers with any help they need*
- leaflets – they provide information that may be useful before, during, or after a journey*
- announcements – pre-recorded and live announcements are made to provide service updates and other journey information*
- information screens – next train indicators, summary of departure screens, and special notice screens are placed in different parts of the station to provide service information*
*Only available at key stations
How information about train schedules, tariffs and platforms is provided
We know how important it is to give you everything you need to plan your journey properly, and to keep you informed of any changes. We offer advice, timetables, and information about travelling with GWR in different ways:
- GWR.com and the GWR app – we provide several journey planning tools on our website and mobile app. You can use these to find train times, ticket prices, and live updates. We also provide information on how planned rail improvements might affect your journey
- Help Points – available 24/7 and provides details of the next train and platform information. They also allow you to speak to a member of staff if further help is required
- Customer Support – available to provide information between 06:00 and 23:00 on 03457 000 125
- social media – available between 06:00 and 23:00 on Twitter @GWRhelp, Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp on 07890 608043
- posters at stations – they provide information about timetables and how to contact us if help is needed
- information screens – they display train times and platform information*
- printed timetables*
*Only available at key stations
Ticket buying facilities
We want to make it as easy as we can to buy a ticket for travelling with us, so we offer several options to suit different circumstances and budgets.
Tickets can be bought:
- online at GWR.com or through the GWR app
- by visiting our ticket offices
- through ticket machines at most stations
- through our Specialist Sales team on 03457 000 125*
- through our Passenger Assist team on 0800 197 1329 (when booking journey assistance for elderly and disabled customers)
*Isles of Scilly, Night Riviera Sleeper, Group Travel and Business Direct bookings only
Tickets can also be bought from the conductor on board the train if you are starting your journey from a station with no ticket buying facilities.
Availability of staff at the station for information provision and ticket sale
Information about when our stations are staffed and the ticket office opening times can be found on GWR.com and on the National Rail Enquiries website.
All our unstaffed stations have Help Points to allow you to find the latest information about your journey and speak to a member of staff. We also make sure that posters are kept up-to-date with information you might need.
How information to disabled people and persons with reduced mobility is provided
We know how important it is to have the information you need for your journey. We provide information in a variety of ways to suit the needs of all our customers, including those with a disability.
Our booking offices and customer information points are the easiest places for customers with a disability to get the information they need. Many of these are equipped with induction loops and some booking offices have low-level counters. The staff here can give you details about the facilities, services, and level of accessibility at all railway stations in the UK and answer any questions about your journey – including about train times and connections.
We display our printed information clearly at our stations, and make sure the display is accessible for people in a wheelchair. If you can’t find what you need, please let one of our team know and they will do their best to help.
You can get the latest information about train times, including delays and planned improvement work:
- on GWR.com and the GWR app
- on our Facebook page
- on our Twitter account, @GWRHelp
- by sending us a WhatsApp message on 07890 608043
- by calling our Passenger Assist team on 0800 197 1329 or by dialling text relay on 18001 0800 197 1329
- by calling National Rail Enquiries on 03457 48 49 50* or textphone 0345 60 50 600*
- by calling National Rail Enquiries’ Welsh language service on 0345 60 40 500*
- by using the TrainTracker™ text service: Text ‘dep’ followed by the station you need to 84950 to get real-time information (texts cost 25p plus your normal network rate)
- by calling the TrainTracker™ speech recognition system on 03457 48 49 50*, which will tell you the latest train times
*Standard network charges apply. Calls from mobiles may be higher
For more information about our commitments and standards of service for disabled and mobility-impaired customers, download our Accessible Travel Policy (PDF, 290 KB).
Delayed services in 2022/23
Service Right-time Delayed Total 1-60 minutes 60-119 minutes Partial cancellation and delays of over 120 minutes Missed connections with other train services GWR 62.20% 37.80% 33.70% 0.10% 1.50% data not available High speed services 30.20% 69.80% 63.30% 0.60% 3.40% data not available London - Thames Valley services 70.90% 29.10% 26.00% 0.00% 0.70% data not available West services 64.80% 35.20% 30.80% 0.10% 1.80% data not available Disruption
We work hard to make sure journeys with us run smoothly but we know that sometimes things don’t go to plan. When this happens, we have plans in place to help you reach your destination as soon and as comfortably as possible.
We are active partners in the Rail Delivery Group’s Smarter Information Smarter Journeys programme which looks to improve the delivery of information to customers at an industry level.
Our Customer Action Teams (CATs) have been trained to assist customers and colleagues and will be deployed to stations or trains during significant disruption. We also have an On-Call process, where managers are allocated to a geographical area of the business to provide a suitable response to any incident. These managers are trained to deal with any incident and to provide support to our customers and colleagues, whether that be through the delivery of alternative transport, information provision, or simply to provide a management presence.
When we have significant disruption, we will implement responses appropriate to the incident, including:
- on-call managers deployed to stations and trains
- CATs deployed to stations and trains
- frequency of information is increased, with updates on the incident sent at least every 20 minutes
- information is provided in the format of Problem, Impact and Advice
- alternative road transport will be provided
- arrangements will be put in place for other train companies and transport providers to accept our tickets
- we will liaise with our Social Media team, National Rail Enquiries, INRIX (who provide traffic updates to various media agencies), and our Customer Support team
- special messages will be displayed on information screens at our stations advising customers of the problem, the impact on journeys and our advice
Cancelled services in 2022/23
Service Full cancellations GWR 2.50% High Speed services 2.50% London- Thames Valley services 2.50% West services 2.60% Cleaning intervals
We work hard to keep our trains and stations as clean and as safe as possible.
We have a robust cleaning programme which is designed to maintain the overall environment for our customers, so that they have a pleasant experience when visiting GWR stations. We clean our stations daily or weekly depending on their usage. We also do regular extensive deep cleans while ensuring there is little to no impact on our customers.
Our trains are cleaned before, during, and after most journeys, as well as at night. All our trains undergo different types of cleaning:
- planned heavy cleaning – an extensive and planned programme of cleaning, undertaken over a longer period and includes additional areas being cleaned. Typically delivered on each train every 28 days
- exterior cleaning – a regular clean of the outside of the train. Intercity Express Trains (IETs), Night Riviera Sleeper trains, and Castle class trains are typically cleaned every other day. Electric Multiple Unit (EMU) and Diesel Multiple Unit (DMU) fleets are cleaned every four days
- overnight cleaning – a nightly cleaning programme designed to improve the main areas subject to a build-up of dirt and debris during the day
- intermediate cleaning – a cleaning programme designed to be carried out at locations where it is not possible to deliver an overnight clean in its entirety. For example, when trains are kept overnight at a station or siding instead of the depot
- turnaround cleaning – delivered at terminating stations to prepare the train for the next journey, time-limited and responds to service alterations.
- in-transit cleaning – a cleaning programme designed to maintain the overall environment and comfort of customers during their journey
Technical measurement for air quality
As well as the regular opening of passenger doors, all our trains have either air conditioning fitted or ventilation through extractor fans and hopper windows that can be opened. The air conditioning mixes fresh air intake with the air in the saloon, which completely changes the air in the carriages multiple times per hour, in accordance with the British Standards or Rail Group Standards.
Availability of toilets
There are toilets, including at least one that is accessible, on all our trains. You'll usually find one at the end of a carriage.
All our key stations have toilets. We keep them open when the station is staffed.
Customer Satisfaction survey 2022/23 % Satisfaction Punctuality of trains 73 Information to passengers in case of delays 57 Accuracy and availability of information on train times/platforms 86 Consistently good maintenance/excellent condition of trains 84 High level of security on train 90 High level of security in station 87 Cleanliness of inside of the train 84 Provision of useful information throughout the journey 83 Response times to information requests at stations Not measured in CSM Availability of good quality toilets on every train 74 Cleanliness and maintenance of stations to a high standard 85 Accessibility of stations 90 Accessibility of trains 92 Assistance provision to disabled persons and persons with reduced mobility 89 CSM = Customer Satisfaction Measurement
Procedure in place
We know that the needs of communities and our customers change, and we want to carry on living up to your expectations, and our own high standards. So, when you get in touch with us with a complaint or some feedback, we record all the details – good and bad. We share your comments with the relevant areas of the business in daily, weekly, and monthly reports. They go to the managers and senior managers responsible, as well as our directors.
The reports help us work out where we can improve, and what changes we need to make to give our customers a great service. That’s why we’re always happy to hear from you.
We will:
- use the complaint data to identify the root causes of complaints.
- take action to reduce the chance of a similar issue happening again.
- regularly review our performance when dealing with complaints to improve how we deal with them.
Find out more about how we deal with complaints and complaints data (PDF, 315 KB).
Number of complaints and outcome
In 2022/23 we received 43,298 complaints and closed 43,388 complaints.
We closed 96.99% of the complaints we received within 20 days of receipt, 48.06% within 10 days, and 30.09% within our target of 5 working days. We took an average of 9 days to respond.
Categories for complaints
The top 5 complaint categories in 2022/23 were:
- Quality on Train – Sufficient room for all passengers to sit/stand
- Company Policy – Ticketing and refunds policy
- Train Service Performance – Punctuality/Reliability (i.e. the train arriving/departing on time)
- Delay compensation – claim rejected
- Quality on Train – facilities on board
Possible improvement action undertaken
Quality on Train – Sufficient room for all passengers to sit/stand
Complaints about crowding on board have been driven by a combination of short-formed services, the knock effect of train service performance issues causing subsequent services to be busy, and the impact of the ongoing industrial action driving demand on days before and after the strikes.
We continue to work on fleet availability to ensure we have sufficient capacity to meet passenger demand, and we run as many services as possible on days impacted by industrial action.
Company Policy – Ticketing and refunds policy
This category mainly covers issues arising from our refund processes, and is driven by complaints about the process itself and the late payment of refunds to some customers.
We saw a large spike in refund applications because of industrial action which impacted the industry for much of 2022/23. The short-notice announcement of the strikes meant the volume of refund requests were significantly above expectation, and we struggled to process refunds as fast as we’d like. We addressed this by adding resources to our Refunds team. Our refund response times subsequently started to fall, settling back to under 5 days from December onwards, where we also saw a reduction in complaint volume.
Train Service Performance – Punctuality/Reliability (i.e. the train arriving/departing on time)
Delayed and cancelled trains led to complaints about the punctuality and reliability of GWR services throughout the year, partly driven by the industrial action which meant there were many days where only a few services ran, but also by network infrastructure issues which caused disruption. With the industrial relations dispute being a national issue beyond our control, we could only focus on the performance of our own services, and a number of workstreams ran concurrently to improve this.
Project Fusion saw collaboration between GWR and Network Rail to identify issues in the East of our network that were causing delays to services, and to jointly work for solutions to the problems identified. This is in addition to a number of Performance Improvement Plans that are in place across the network to drive improvement, all with the aim of improving punctuality and reliability.
Delay compensation – claim rejected
The volume of Delay Repay claims received in 2022/23 rose sharply from the previous year, and led to a subsequent increase in the volume of complaints about failed claims. We addressed this by making changes to our dedicated Delay Repay claim portal to make each stage of the claim process clearer to reduce any potential customer confusion. We constantly review both the portal and our complaint and failed claims data, to feed into a continuous improvement process for Delay Repay claims. While the volume of Delay Repay claims received remained high, this work led to the volume of complaints received about the Delay Repay process to remain relatively low.
Quality on Train – facilities on board
Although 'facilities on-board’ is a broad category, the primary driver for complaints has been around our catering, and led by the disparity between what we advertised, and what was provided on the day. As a long-distance operator, we recognise the dissatisfaction this causes for our customers.
We are addressing this though a review of our catering proposition to ensure the products available meet our customers’ expectations. We are also reviewing the resources we have, so we can consistently deliver a catering service when it is scheduled. We are confident that this will bring about positive changes, commencing with the May 2023 timetable change.
Assistance procedure in place
Passenger Assist is a national system used by all train companies, which allows us to make the necessary arrangements for your journey.
If you have a disability, non-visible disability, or are elderly, you can pre-book journey assistance. We can make sure you get all the help you need for your journey and will arrange everything, including changes, and connections that involve other train companies.
You just need to let us know at least 2 hours before your journey. Our Passenger Assist Team is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week (excluding 25 and 26 December).
- use our online form
- call us free on 0800 197 1329*
- dial text relay free on 18001 0800 197 1329
- use the Passenger Assistance by Transport app
*Buying travel tickets, (including, where available cheaper advance fares), can be done at the same time you call to book assistance, all within a single transaction.
Find out more about our Passenger Assist service and view our Accessible Travel Policy.
Number of cases of assistance
Number of completed booked and unbooked assistance in 2022/23 (broken down by period)
Period 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Booked assistance volume 5,633 6,466 5,585 5,612 5,158 6,467 4,986 4,334 4,089 3,042 2,713 3,922 4,695 Unbooked assistance volume 2,580 3,002 3,059 3,422 3,353 4,132 2,970 3,243 3,228 2,164 2,286 3,157 2,994