Your favourite and least favourite UK rail operators?

[Matt N]

Hi guys. Here in the UK, the railway network is often a source of a good moan from Brits. Whether it’s delays, cancellations or general rail-related grievances, people are often not very happy with our railway network, to say the least. However, I’ve noticed that some operators tend to draw more ire from people than others. So as I stand on Cardiff Central’s platform this evening waiting for the next train home after my prior one was cancelled, I’d be keen to know; which are your favourite and least favourite of the UK’s various rail operators? Which railway operator generally delivers the best service, in your view, and which one is to be avoided?

Personally, I’ve travelled on 4 different operators’ trains, to my memory.

My favourite is probably Great Western Railway. They have really nice trains, they normally have a good amount of carriages running, and I haven’t had any terrible cancellation or delay experiences with them either.

My least favourite is probably CrossCountry. I travel with them relatively often, and they often seem to run very few carriages relative to the number of people on the train, resulting in a very cramped train. They also seem to be the operator who seem most prone to random cancellations or long delays, in my experience (albeit admittedly not as bad as a couple of years ago), and I think their trains could maybe do with updating to spruce them up add newer features like plug sockets (the trains that run on the Cardiff-Nottingham route, anyway).

In terms of the other two I’ve travelled with:

• Transport for Wales is my other most frequent operator, and I find them a bit of a mixed bag. Their new trains are very nice, but it seems to be a bit of a lottery as to whether you get one of these or a screechy train from the 1980s. They generally run on time and rarely seem to randomly cancel, but I do find that like CrossCountry, they occasionally don’t run enough coaches for the amount of people on the train (not quite as habitually, but they still only ran 2 coaches to Cheltenham during Cheltenham Festival, for example, which was bedlam!).
• I also travelled on South Western Railway on a trip I did last year, and I didn’t have anything bad to say about them. Their trains were quite nice and smart and very well stocked in terms of coaches, and everything ran on time, so I can’t complain, really!

I haven’t been on any others. I’ve heard bad things about Avanti West Coast and Northern up in the North (I don’t know if any Northerners on here can corroborate this), but I haven’t personally travelled on them.

But I’d be interested to know; which UK rail operators are your favourites and least favourites?

 

[James F]

Northern Rail seems to strike almost every other month at this point. I remember the nightmare commute of getting to and from uni in Salford, often made worse due to cancellations and delays relating to strikes. I will say that the trains themselves have gotten better. My train home from Manchester Piccadilly was an old pacer train which ran all the way to 2019 - not pleasant, basically a bus on rails, which originally were lined with asbestos.

Avanti West Coast is bad for cancellations, especially with trains travelling through Preston, however I will say I have always been lucky with the train I get from Wigan North Western to Edinburgh Waverley, so personally I can't complain about them that much.

My favourite in the UK is ScottRail. I have never had an issue with them and I can actually access the WiFi unlike most services.

Trainspennie Express is iffy. Sometimes their alright. But more often than not their trains are too short and are often overcrowded, but at least they have made some effort updating the interiors.

To be honest, the UK’s national rail services are complete turd in comparison to other countries. Even though it's a low budget carrier, France's OuiGo is my favourite. TGV high speed trains which are on time, spacious, comfortable and cheap. What's not to like?

 

[MackMan]

As someone who doesn't drive here is my two cents.

Southern Rail:
Dirty, fair amounts of delays but generally not fully cancelled. First Class is literally a small carriage that equally is filthy. The trains tend to be overcrowded between London/Gatwick.

Thameslink: 12 coach services means getting a seat is a lot easier, but still dirty and delays are common. Not too offensive to be honest.

Northern: Dirty but trains I travelled on seemed fairly new compared to the fossils SWR operates. Delays were probably the WORST I have seen (outside of GWR)

GWR:
Been on twice and was delayed 3 HOURS on way home, and was delayed a hour on journey there. Trains are overcrowded and punctuality is poor.

Scotrail: Not the best trains or service with minor delays, but tickets are more affordable.

SWR:
Their new trains are passable and fine, albeit expensive. Their old trains (half of their stock) is noisy, has a horrid vibration, and looks like it needs putting out of its misery.

Avanti: Been on Avanti about 4 times and not delayed a single time. Good but expensive.

TFL/TUBE
Just gonna say I think London's transport is a cut above most of the privatized stuff. Sure some tube lines and overground are better than others, but having contactless (and a fair maximum fare IMO) makes everyone's life easier. Services are also beyond frequent, maybe an unfair comparison.

But yeah trains in the UK are kind of awful. I personally blame privitasion..

 

[Burniel]

I've travelled on a fair few and have far too many opinions on the subject:

South Western Railway (Best):
By far my most used operator and, probably through bias, my favourite. The class 444s (the ones down the mainline to Southampton/Weymouth) are my favourite class of train for overall design and comfort. Admittedly the antiquated 455s, still serving most of the metro routes until the new trains are fully rolled out, are pretty terrible, though I'll admit a part of me will be sad to take my last ride on one. They're usually quite reliable and when things are cancelled the excuse is pretty believable. Somehow feels like they're doing engineering work every weekend on my local lines, but that's probably the branching nature of the network. On off-peak days, I can go from where I live to Staines (2 trains, about 1 hour of journey time) for the same price (with Railcard) as the Thorpe shuttle from Staines to the park, which I would go as far as to say is good value.

Spoiler: Waffling on about every other operator I've used (no particular order)

Southern:
Not as bad as they infamously were in the 2010s, but not brilliant either. The trains have some of the squeakiest tray tables in the business and generally have ugly interiors. They don't really go anywhere quickly, apart from on the Brighton mainline, and are very prone to delay.

Thameslink:
Ironing board seats on routes you could theoretically be on for multiple hours is dystopian, and the core section is too overtimetabled to ever run to time. But it could be worse, they're high capacity and I like how many random places it connects (who even came up with a Horsham to Peterborough through service?)

Great Western Railway:
Love the diversity of their routes and fleet, but somehow the one I need is always a trundling diesel on an at best hourly service. Ideal if you want to get from anywhere to Reading, but if you're going to Reading you have bigger problems than the train.

Chiltern:
Used them once as a super-cheap way to get from London to Oxford the long way round. It did not feel like a mainline service out of London, the train seemed very outdated and cramped, but I did get to Oxford on time and got a seat, which is more than can be said for the GWR I got home.

London North Western:
Expensive, but not as expensive nor unreliable as I've heard Avanti to be (I wouldn't know, I've yet to win the lottery). Used once to get to Tamworth for Drayton Manor, got very busy and rowdy on the return journey but there'd been a match on somewhere so won't mark them down for that.

East Midlands Railway:
Can only really comment on the London->Sheffield mainline route, which was fine. Fairly priced for an advance single, the usual eye-watering prices otherwise. I think seat reservations have worked on 2 of my 4 journeys.

Great Northern:
Used once on the London->Cambridge route. Everything was fine and ran on time, but it had Southern vibes because that's all it is under the hood.

London North Eastern:
Arguably the best overall quality we have and the only first class I'd genuinely like to try and pay for. The downfall is the price, but they clearly don't need to lower the price because they're always full.

Hull Trains:
Used once, seems to be LNER with different colours. Oh, and literally every train goes to Hull. The staff were particularly friendly though.

Greater Anglia (Stansted Express only):
Very nice trains and not too much of a rip off considering it's an airport express that'll take you the full 3000 miles from London to London Stansted Airport.

C2C:
Perfectly serviceable for the shorter routes they offer. I want to say they're getting/have recently got new trains, which is good because the ones I used in 2023 were very tired.

Transpennine Express:
Mixed feelings, need more experiences. I've used them 3 times: the first was decent but fairly busy, the second was cancelled due to an overhead cable issue (not their fault) and the third was alright but slightly late and nowhere near big enough for the demand it had.

Northern:
I've not used these enough, because I didn't hate the experiences I had last year and apparently I was supposed to. But admittedly they were slow.

TfL:
Obviously the best, but feels like cheating.

Cross Country (Worst):
Just grim in every sense. Dirty, uncomfortable, never enough capacity, way overpriced, horrendously unreliable... need I go on? They have some of the conceptually coolest routes in the country, yet serve them with the worst trains possible which break every 30 seconds. As much as I want to say it would have potential with better trains, I think the whole concept is flawed with our existing rail infrastructure - the routes pass through so many other operators' territory, across so many overcrowded stretches of UK rail, that it can only take a GWR flapping its wings in Devon for carnage to spread all the way up to Scotland.

 

[Railfan uk]

Honestly I don’t know