Name: Great Western Railway
Rating: 4.6 (86273 reviews)

Updating

Great Western Railway

First Great Western

Released: 2011-10-13

Free 0%

Version 5.0.0

Free 0%

Version 5.0.0

Released: 2011-10-13

#89 in Top Free iPad Apps > Travel

iPhone Screenshots

iPad Screenshots

Description

Use the Great Western Railway app to plan your next journey and book train tickets with ease.

Key features:

Book train tickets

* Purchase train tickets across all networks to anywhere in Britain

* Save up to 50% with an Advance train ticket; compared to standard Anytime fares

* No booking or card fees

* Store mobile train tickets in-app to use straight-away

* Convenient home screen widget for ease of access to your tickets for travel today

GWR Rewards

* Join our loyalty programme in-app

* Track points and transactions

* Easily access your rewards to redeem in-app and onboard GWR services

Digital railcards

* Ability to purchase 8 different railcards and store in-app

* Railcards purchased via our website can be stored in-app using your unique code

Check live train times

* View departure and arrival times for all National Rail services

* Check live train timetables and platform numbers

* View facilities and how busy it is onboard with live loading data

* Save your frequent journeys for ease of checking again later

* Keep updated with live GWR network information provided on the home screen

Download now and plan your next train journey.

Information to note:

You'll need to create an online GWR account or sign-in before you can purchase your train tickets.

Got a question? Here's our FAQs:

https://www.gwr.com/help-and-support/faqs

Need to get in touch? Find the best way to here: https://www.gwr.com/help-and-support/contact-us

Learn more about us at https://www.gwr.com/

What's New in Version 5.0.0

We have made some changes:

The way to sign in and register

Promo codes are now added before you search for your tickets

Our payment provider, so things will look slightly different

Seller

Name

First Great Western Ltd.

URL

Information

Developer

First Great Western

Version

5.0.0

Size

142.8 MB

Game Center

VPP Device Licensing

Yes

Rating

Rated: 4+

Compatibility

iOS 16.6 or later

Devices

iPhone 5s, iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, iPhone SE, iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus, iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, iPhone X, iPhone XR, iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, iPhone 11 Pro Max, iPhone SE (2nd generation), iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Pro, iPhone 12 Pro Max, iPhone 12 mini, iPhone 13, iPhone 13 Pro, iPhone 13 Pro Max, iPhone 13 mini, iPhone SE (3rd generation), iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Plus, iPhone 14 Pro, iPhone 14 Pro Max, iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Plus, iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, iPhone 16 Pro Max, iPhone 16e, iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro, iPhone 17 Pro Max, iPhone Air, iPad (5th Generation) Wi-Fi, iPad (5th Generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad (6th generation) Wi-Fi, iPad (6th generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro, iPad Pro (Cellular), iPad Pro (9.7-inch), iPad Pro (9.7-inch) (Cellular), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (2nd generation), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (2nd generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro (10.5-inch), iPad Pro (10.5-inch) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro (11-inch), iPad Pro (11-inch) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 12.9-inch (3rd generation), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (3rd generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Air, iPad Air (Cellular), iPad Air 2, iPad Air 2 (Cellular), iPad Air (3rd generation), iPad Air (3rd generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad mini Retina, iPad mini Retina (Cellular), iPad mini 3, iPad mini 3 (Cellular), iPad mini 4, iPad mini 4 (Cellular), iPad mini (5th Generation), iPad mini (5th Generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad (7th generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 11-inch (2nd generation), iPad Pro 11-inch (2nd generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 12.9-inch (4th generation), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (4th generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Air (4th Generation) (Wi-Fi), iPad Air (4th Generation) (Wi-Fi + Cellular), iPad (8th generation) Wi-Fi, iPad (8th generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 11-inch (3rd generation), iPad Pro 11-inch (3rd generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 12.9-inch (5th Generation), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (5th Generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad (9th Generation), iPad (9th Generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad mini (6th Generation), iPad mini (6th Generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Air (5th generation), iPad Air (5th generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 11-inch (4th generation), iPad Pro 11-inch (4th generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 12.9-inch (6th generation), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (6th generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad (10th generation), iPad (10th generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Air 11-inch (M2) Wi-Fi, iPad Air 13-inch (M2) Wi-Fi, iPad Air 13-inch (M2) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 11-inch (M4) Wi-Fi, iPad Pro 11-inch (M4) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 13-inch (M4) Wi-Fi, iPad Pro 13-inch (M4) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad mini (A17 Pro) Wi-Fi, iPad mini (A17 Pro) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad (A16) Wi-Fi, iPad (A16) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Air 11-inch (M3) Wi-Fi, iPad Air 11-inch (M3) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Air 13-inch (M3) Wi-Fi, iPad Air 13-inch (M3) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 11-inch (M5) Wi-Fi, iPad Pro 11-inch (M5) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 13-inch (M5) Wi-Fi, iPad Pro 13-inch (M5) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPod touch (6th Generation), iPod touch (7th generation)

Languages

English

App Store: Customer Ratings

Ratings & Reviews

4.6 of 5 (86,273 Ratings)

App Store: Customer Reviews

2026-02-24

Update has many bugs

Lots to fix in this latest update. Many a broken links including not being able to access previous season tickets and purchases and the GWR rewards feature doesn’t work. Simply says ‘something went wrong’. Should have been tested before releasing.

2026-02-24

Update wiped my bookings

I downloaded the app update and immediately lost access to all bookings made prior to that date. Hopeless

2026-02-24

Lost bookings

Appalled that it loses even yesterdays booking

2026-02-24

Live times has broke

When you check the live updates function it just says ‘there is no ticket office at that platform, please choose another station’. List a critical function.

2026-02-24

Update loses data without warning

What a terrible way to update an app. Bad enough to force a password update but to lose your previously bought tickets when this is a promoted feature of the app with no warning this would happen is outrageous. A warning allows users to take mitigating actions ahead of time. People generally grab and go to a train, so finding old emails running for a train is bad. GWR has shown no thought in how app workflow operates or just straight out contempt for their passengers. The RP people on the trains are in for a few bad days.

2026-02-24

Broken

Latest update means that you cannot buy tickets as there is never a delivery method available. Makes the app pointless

2026-02-24

Beware

Latest update is horrendous. Don’t install it. You won’t be able to access your existing tickets

2026-02-24

A backwards step for train bookings, and misery for frequent travellers

Why has GWR in their wisdom created a ridiculous situation for regular travellers who pre-book well in advance? We have to face weeks/months of misery trying to use old tickets. In addition GWR has taken the opportunity to remove features from their app rather than improve the app. Why remove the ability to book window seats? After years of using this app going to Trainline app.

2026-02-20

£5 admin fee on ticket refund

App doesn’t say that trains are cancelled and the admin fee is more than the ticket

2026-02-19

Excellent app

Easy to use

Excellent prices

Tickets then easy access in Apple wallet straight away after payment 👍😘🙌

2026-02-19

Quicker than before

Efficient

2026-02-16

Booking

Would be great if booking a sleeper cabin is allowed.

2026-02-12

Great way to get shafted

Unstable, I have been charged a couple of times and the ticket doesn’t work, GWR don’t care it’s always the customers fault.

2026-02-12

Works well most of the time

Not always the cheapest tickets, hopefully when government takes over they will come down in price

2026-02-11

Avoid!

Buggy. Charged me twice for a ticket. No split tickets. Use TrainPal instead.

2026-02-08

Great help

Always seems to be up to date and factual. The option on the stations big help to know where your train is coming in on the platform

2026-02-07

Mr

The services are seamless and very efficient.

2026-02-03

Amateur compared to Trainline

No notifications about my train on the day, no platform info, tickets don’t get suggested by Apple wallet on the day. So many things that are essential to making your journey simple, are entirely absent.

I bet their own employees use Trainline over this awful app.

2026-01-28

Useless

When selecting the route why do you not show the connection details. Instead the uber academic explanation of your intransparent pricing structure. Look at the app os the swiss national railways. I use this instead.

2026-01-27

Easy to navigate

So user friendly and easy navigate

2026-01-26

Add railcard

Would be good if this was a setting so I didn’t have to re-select every time I use app or when it times out.

2026-01-18

Straightforward

Seems to work well for me, seamlessly integrates with the Network Rail app also

2026-01-18

Railcards

Why does the app not retain my railcard information? It’s annoying to have to enter it every time.

2026-01-14

Terrible - Minus 5

Absolutely rubbish. Have had enough after using this regularly and am moving to trainline. Would give it zero stars if I could!

2025-12-15

Useless App

Their App is useless does not work anywhere except UK!!!!!!

2025-12-05

Quick and easy but limited

Great app but why can I not set preferences for not only the journey but also single/return and railcard? Having to enter this every day is annoying.

2025-12-02

GWR Ticket App

Quick, Easy, No booking Fees, all good. Only improvement would be Tickets to Wallet, instead of collecting at station, even with mixed journeys, you would think this would be possible!

2025-11-30

Best for GWR fans

The best train app

2025-11-26

Doesn’t work on iPad

I thought Apple required that apps worked on iPad. But this one doesn’t, it’s orientated 90°, so impossible to use. The Trainline app is far better.

2025-11-10

Lost important features

I travel a lot around Cornwall, and use trains as much as possible but very recently the app has lost its most important feature ‘ the ability to store e-tickets on my most frequent journey from Penmere to Truro, it now only offers collect from station and my nearest station is a mile away ! What is the point ! It isn’t anything I am doing as if I select different stations I can have an e- ticket like Penmere to Redruth, I think it coincides with the Plusbus which is more expensive than single bus tickets in either location. What a waste of my time and GWR help are helpless in the matter blaming the customer when I contacted them.

2025-11-07

A useful app.

Responsive, and easy to use.

2025-11-04

good app

great app tbh wish it worked outside uk as well but oh well

2025-11-03

Cant access my railcard

I purchased the Railcard from GWR but when I installed the app, the app constantly crashes meaning now I cannot access my digital Railcard.

2025-11-03

No seat numbers 😡

App is fine but mobile tickets on Apple do not show seat numbers. Very very annoying. Yet it dies in Google Wallet. But not Apple Wallet. Really a pain and seems obvious it should show it on digital wallet

2025-10-29

Fine but could be better

Ticket downloads don’t include seat bookings. There are no live update notifications. When a ticket is booked there is no option to add to calendar. I like GWR, staff are great and I want to use its app but Trainline does have more functions!

2025-10-14

No virtual ticket

I could only choose to collect my ticket from the station, but you can’t buy or collect tickets from my departure station! I had to buy it on a third party app to get a virtual ticket. Is GWR in 21st century yet?

2025-10-14

Basic - missing key functionality for a travel app

The app sends me no notifications at all when my train is cancelled. It should be the simplest thing for it to do! It also removes the train completely from search so when you go to check if it’s running, it’s just disappeared. (On the website it shows the train but flags it’s cancelled, which is more useful.) This has now happened twice in a month. Logs me out intermittently for no reason. No journey tracking at all - neither shows stops nor live progress. All these elements should be so easy to fix and are essential in a train app. Please fix them GWR!

2025-10-13

Fantastic app

I buy any ticket as soon as as possible

2025-10-12

Unstable

Completely unusable as an app; constantly crashes on opening. Thankfully they email tickets as pdf - if I had to rely on this app for my tickets I’d be gong nowhere.

2025-10-12

Every one wants a review🙁

It’s the only way to get direct tickets. So I have to use it. It’s ok like all the other apps we are now required to use

2025-10-09

Newton Abbot

Friendly Staff

2025-10-07

Works well

Works well and the info on how many carriages is useful too..

2025-10-07

Great booking

No extra charges when booking tickets I have had great experience with customer services when I’ve needed to cancel check would highly recommend

2025-09-24

Be careful using this app

The sales system for this app or the GWR website is not integrated with the GWR systems at their rail stations. This doesn't matter when things work fine but can go badly for you when things go wrong.

Yesterday I purchased a travel card to London and as usual requested it be loaded to my smart card. This failed and I couldn't load my travel card to my smart card. I went to my GWR station assuming they could fix the issue. How wrong I was. According to an employee of GWR their systems at the station have nothing to do with the app. The only thing I could do was buy another travel card which I duly did.

On the app there are no phone numbers for GWR - they don't want you to call them I guess. I contacted their support via WhatsApp and was told due to an IT systems failure tickets were not available to load onto smart cards. When the employee attempted to issue a refund to me I was told my travel card had been used - the card I could not load onto my smart card or print/issue at the station. I was given a phone number to call and had to explain the situation to another employee who had no idea that there had been an IT systems failure. Not good. They raised a case for a refund and stated it could take up to 28 days for a response!

TLDR: GWR have poor customer service and poor systems meaning if something goes wrong on this app staff at your local train station will not be able to help and getting any kind of refund will take a month. When the app works it is satisfactory but if it goes wrong you will be in trouble. Definitely will not be using this app ever again - GWR simply cannot be trusted.

2025-09-23

QR Code

In this version the QR ticket code is only partially visible, thus rendering it useless when going through the ticket gates. It was never that clever in the first place as it was always too small for the reader. I used to use the code attached to the acknowledging email but that option appears to have gone now.

2025-09-23

Stupid app charged me but ticket no where to be found

New bug meant my e ticket never came. I had the booking confirmation but no ticket

2025-09-20

Bad everything

Update.

Ran for a train Paddington to Newport.

Got on, found no 1st class at the front. Wandered up the train looking for it. Nowhere to be found.

Ticket lady explained late change of rolling stock, apply for partial refund via the website.

Website later replied by email explaining it was my fault, I shouldn’t have caught the train. I should have waited as they had broadcast the lack of 1st class at the station.

They refused my refund.

I was upset. I used unpleasant language by email and never expected to hear anything more.

My rude email inspired them to send me a voucher for the difference.

I hate this company

Refund should have been made without question.

I should not be rewarded for swearing.

I should get a refund. Not a voucher.

I hate this company

Previous review:

Horrible app.

Clunky UI

Can’t track live trains

Refunds are almost impossible

2025-09-18

Bad experience

Do yourself a favor and book from other apps. I paid 72 pounds for off peak but it should have been 42 pounds

2025-09-12

Mr John Irwin

Quick and convenient source of booking my personal travel.

2025-09-12

App doesn’t work.

Tried opening the app, but it immediately shuts off.

2025-08-17

Bring back features in ‘Plan’

Updates to app have removed several useful features. Previously you could click and see full route when planning a journey (all stops the train went through). Now it just says ‘A to B’; this was really helpful, why has it been removed? Previously you could follow trains/routed in the ‘plan’ section which had departed earlier, which was really useful for tracking your train or meeting someone, seeing how different routes were effected be delays; now it’s only trains still to depart. Please bring these back.

2025-04-28

Utterly useless!!!

I want to book a journey from my local station to the centre of London including my travel on London underground.

This app will only allow me to book my travel to London's mainline station.

Because of this the day before I travel I have to go to my local station in Wokingham and buy my ticket manually over-the-counter.

Another factor is that when I book my journey on network rail app I'm given the choices of a return ticket or split tickets for each way to get the best price.

Any journeys I have viewed on this app are more expensive than Trainline or the network rail apps.

Unfortunately when I try to buy my ticket using the network rail app, it tells me that I can't complete my purchase and redirect me to GWR app, which by the information within this review you will understand is rather pointless because GWR app does not include travel on London Underground

Also when you are planning your journey, the first question to ask you is where do you want to go?

The second question should be when do you want to go and at what time? But the developers of this app don't seem to use trains very much.

This app is therefore utterly pointless, useless, hopeless and that whoever developed it doesn't understand real trouble within London.

Deleted!! Have to continue travelling to my local station to buy my tickets in advance.

2025-02-17

Pretty good, not always easy to use

The app is useful and I can usually get slightly cheaper tickets on it since it’s directly from the railway company. However the app interface is not always the easiest and most intuitive to use, with the first few times I used it being very confusing. Plus the ‘my tickets’ section logs me out every couple of times I look at the app so I’m constantly having to type my email and password back in to access my tickets which is especially annoying if I’m in a rush to get to my train and can’t easily access my ticket. I might have clicked something when I first made my account that means it doesn’t remember me and I keep having to log in but it’s not obvious how to change it!

2024-11-14

No buffet car !! Rarely hot coffee available at seat side but lovely staff!

I travel regularly on GWR and whilst GWR has far superior coffee to other train companies on more than 50% journeys taken in the last 2 years the trolley is either not available at all or the hot water is not working or by the time they have got to my carriage the hot water has run out.

Often the train is over crowded so that the trolley can’t get through. Having spoken to many of GWR’s lovely staff they, and many passengers prefer a counter service where passengers can choose when to order coffee etc rather than waiting for 3 hours for the trolley to appear . The trolleys look very heavy and can’t be moved easily. Recently the Penzance train has been made up of two 5 carriage trains. Bad luck if you get in the one that doesn’t have the trolley!

I have always found GWR staff friendly, helpful and patient, especially considering the frequent difficulties of delayed and cancelled trains, which is beyond their control

2024-07-23

Continual log out prevents use of tickets

I can cope with the crappy search and the poor ux around booking and reserving seats when multiple tickets over a number of days are purchased if the app didn’t continually log you out all the time.

You need to be logged in to view and display your qr for your ticket. As the app randomly logs you out, there is no guarantee that you can show your ticket at the gate or on the train particularly as there is seldom a signal when we travel through rural Somerset.

While you can add the ticket to your wallet, relying on a 3rd party tool to overcome a fundamental shortcoming in your own application is shocking - sort it out GWR!

2024-06-28

Wish it would stay signed in!

In general, I find the app excellent for planning and booking journeys, but - as several others have mentioned - there’s no option to request to remain signed in, and it certainly doesn’t leave you signed in for very long. Even if it just kept you signed in for a couple of hours, so you could sign in _before_ you get to the gate line and then hold everyone up, and still be signed in when the tickets are checked on board: I’m sure on train staff must waste loads of time waiting for people to sign in, or having to remember who to come back to.

2024-06-25

Just to say Thank you Mr. Garion!

Just to say Thank you Mr. Garion! I was at Southampton Central station in the early morning of 24 June and He was helping an elderly couple while I was looking for help with my journey. He was very kind and helped me with everything I needed. He is a train driver for GWR company . Such employees are the company’s best image and he deserves to be always appreciated. Five stars are not enough to say Thank you because rarely can meet such kind of employee along train station platforms. In that morning I asked for help others but only He helped people around.

He did everything professionally and with a smile on his face. Thank you!

2024-04-17

Ticketing Nightmare: App's Failures Costing Us Time and Money!

Every single time I try to buy a ticket, it's like banging my head against a brick wall trying to get it onto my smart card. It's a never-ending saga of failed attempts, making me question why I bother. And this has been going on forever!

But now, it's reached a whole new level of infuriating. I've spent over 24 agonizing hours trying to load tickets, but it's like the app is laughing in my face—it just won't work! I've had to cough up extra cash for tickets, all because this stupid app can't do its job properly.

And as if that's not enough, every time I use Apple Pay, the app has the audacity to tell me the payment failed, even though it clearly went through! These problems aren't just annoying, they're downright maddening. Get your act together and fix this mess, ASAP!

2024-03-07

Very unreliable, cheats you of money

This app is extremely poor. I use a GWR Smartcard to buy daily travelcards (since my paper tickets inexplicably rejected at tube barriers everyday). This worked fine for about 6 months, though as others have said, the app repeatedly logs you out and forces your to enter a stupid amount information to buy the same ticket everyday.

Recently it’s started doing something inexcusable – it will allow you to first tap your Smartcard (which is required), then pay, but then fail to load it on to the card on the second tap. This has happened to me 3 times in weeks, and to my partner too.

Apart from leaving you without a ticket (that you’ve paid for), forcing you to buy another, you are then forced to call GWR to apply for a refund. Weeks later and I still have no refund.

This should be illegal, taking your money and refusing to issue a ticket. I’m going to give up using the smartcard and say good riddance to

This sorry excuse for an app.

There should be a centralised way to buy and load tickets to smartcards, or be able to do it though third parties such as The Trainline. The technology is there, it’s just the cripples, backwards rail companies in the way.

2024-01-29

what’s happened?

It might not have been perfect but I’ve always gotten on just fine with the GWR app and have been using in regularly for the past couple of years. They updated it last week and it’s like it’s gone back in time ten years, can’t use apple pay or paypal now, have to input my cvc each time which objectively isn’t that big a deal but as I buy train tickets on here most days and when i used to be able to just double click it’s a bit of a pain, it also now logs me out constantly, so at the end of the day when i’m hurrying to ny train i get to the barriers and oh hang on i need to log in again

I really don’t understand, I’ve never know updates to make an app so much worse

2023-11-20

Useful app

This is a useful app and to be honest the only reason i didn’t give it 5 stars is not really its own fault. That reason is that it’s only as good as the information being fed to it. For example I check it when I leave the car each morning (10mins away) and it will often confirm my train is on time and leaving from its usual platform. By the time I get to the station the platform has changed. This is an accurate reflection of the latest information and reflects the tendency for the station to change the platform the train will be arriving at at the last minute not a failure of the the app! This is proven when I’m early and waiting with everybody else on the platform as shown and the train can be seen on another platform right up until the departure time when everybody is told to change platform thus making the train late!!!

2023-11-04

Terrible

This app will sell you tickets not valid for the service you wish to travel on.

It has no useful information about the ticket types. For example a "Super Saver" ticket is the default option, these are £1 cheaper and non transferable or refundable. The app is designed to mislead you into wasting money in this way.

Return legs on tickets are not considered when you buy, so your ticket may not be valid for the time you wish to return. Again you will end up buying multiple tickets for the same journey.

The app information gives you general info about the tickets but none of it will have the details you need to buy the correct ticket.

The app logs you out periodically, even when its open, making it difficult to retrieve tickets at a station

2023-10-15

Post Covid Leisure Travel

The railway press, and other media, has been telling us that leisure travel is the way forward for the railway companies as business travel has suffered greatly due to the move to home working.

Three times in the last couple of months , return travel to west Wales from London has been appalling - 5 coach trains instead of 9 or 10 coach; delays due to overrunning engineering works etc etc

Come on GWR -we’ve seen it, we’ve said it, now sort it!!

2023-09-29

One of the worst

It keeps signing out, after each single usage. To take a return trip train, i have to tap tickets 4 times, every single time i have to login again, even the trip is 30 min only! Often time there is no good network in station, this makes it useless.

There is a limit of number of tickets one can buy in a day(at the moment it is 4). If the limit is hit, I can still select ticket, pay, then the app returns failure, without a reason. End result is I get no ticket but money is deducted, it will be returned after a week but, why dun stop me from buying? If gwr goes busted in that week my money is doomed.

There is absolutely no notification when there is change in train, including sudden cancellation. It happened multiple times that i only found my train got cancelled when I arrived at the station. How difficult is it to notify passengers with electronic tickets about such important updates?

2023-06-14

Come on GWR! You can 🙏🏾🥰

I would greatly appreciate if the creators of this application could update the train app to include an electronic train card and prevent it from disappearing every time a ticket is purchased. I am a person who frequently changes bags, and by some stroke of fate, I forgot my physical train card in my bag from the previous day. A fatal error! Because on that particular day, I was asked for my train card, but I didn't have it with me. Thankfully, it didn't escalate further as I was able to later prove its existence. Therefore, in this vast world of technology, I kindly request simplifying the existence of the train card within our application. It is easier to forget physical cards than a mobile phone. Thank you in advance.

2022-11-24

Terrible service

I take the train everyday and usually have to wait up to 40 minutes because they’re always delayed for some bizarre reason. I wouldn’t like to count the amount of money I’ve spent on tickets but if I got a on a train without one they wouldn’t hesitate to kick me out, I once forgot my railcard and they tried to charge me £40. They strike at least 8 days a month now because they’re £14 an hour isn’t enough. 4 or 5 days strike in December screwing up everyone else’s Christmas travel. Until they’re on £20 an hour they’ll consider not striking for at least one day. GWR is a terrible service. They’ll either cancel a train on you. Keep you waiting hours for a train or over charge you because you haven’t bought a ticket beforehand even though you’re able to buy a ticket on the train.

2022-10-07

This App Now Gets 5 Stars

This app was already great at finding tickets and allowing you to buy them, but they’ve now added 2 key features which merit the full 5:

- you can now add tickets to the Apple wallet, allowing control freaks like me to keep everything in one place (this also works offline so shouldn’t be dependant on signal)

- an add to calendar feature- although this is still via an attachment to the booking email: if they could make it a simple button on the tickets result page that’d be even better

2022-08-12

Frustrated

I regularly travel to and from London and frequently when trying to purchase a ticket you get all the way to the payment point and when you select the payment card option the app hands with the spinning wheel and you cannot enter your card details or get any further. This appears to happen usually in the evenings I guess when the system is busy. I often have to give up and go to the ticket office to buy a ticket there. This has been happening on and off for the past few months.

2021-08-27

Ok apart from buying tickets

It has a good interface for checking train times quickly (handily also works outside of the GWR network, seems to work for any uk station), but buying tickets is woeful. You have to have an account and be logged in to buy tickets which is a bit annoying in the first place, but the really frustrating thing is that it doesn’t stay logged in! Very inconvenient. Even the payment page is broken so I had to have several tries to actually pay and get the ticket; the ticket display page is also hard to find and not apple wallet integrated 👎. For some reason my phone refuses to save the login for this app as well so I’m scrambling to remember a password each time. Should be convenient for me, someone who buys short journey tickets most days, but it’s rubbish so I still buy paper tickets at the station.

2021-06-22

Print the eTicket!

After giving it 1 star after it said ‘Technical issues prevent…’ nearly all the time and never letting me log in, it started working and showed my now-used (printed) eTicket, so am cautiously raising my rating. Until I can copy a ticket into Wallet I will not trust it to show ticket at barrier and recommend printing the one sent with email receipt. Price was better than Trainline (even before Tl added booking fee) but I don’t trust this app to show my ticket when needed. Web-site usually works fine (one “try later…” so I advise purchasing as early as possible).

2020-11-16

E-tickets has never worked (even during a pandemic)

Been travelling between (major hub) London Paddington to (major hub) Reading regularly for 2y and only occasionally (and 18mo+ ago) has the e-ticket function been available. After 8mo of not travelling due to restrictions I went on to book travel for today thinking “SURELY they’ve got this service sorted w the pressure of Covid”... but... the usual ‘technical issue’ message at the point of purchase. I deleted and reinstalled the app / checked latest version (on new iPhone) so alas... I’ll have to catch Covid from the ticket machine buttons. Better not to claim functionality if it doesn’t ever work.

2020-08-17

Good luck

Good luck trying to book a return ticket, never any seats available and if you can’t reserve a seat you can’t book a ticket. Better off buying a ticket at the station. Why you have to book a seat on an anytime ticket or off peak to be used within a month is pointless as how can the app can predict trains are full when most people buy these types of ticket is beyond me. There is no ticket for the easy journey I want for over a month and I’ve given up looking will just go to the station. Try the app you will see what I mean. You can book two singles at a much higher price which shows there actually is seats available and they are just trying to recoup money lost from covid. Ie ticket from Exeter to Bristol used to be under a tenner it is now £43

2020-07-18

Avoid! Took payment without providing the tickets

The app looked alright at first but got buggier and buggier the further I got through the booking process. After battling through to the end it took my payment then showed an error message that it had failed to complete the transaction - but I can see on my card the payment has been taken. GWR say it will take 28 days to get it back, and that I need to take it up with my bank if I want it sooner and that in the meanwhile if I want to travel I have to do the whole thing again. This app should not have passed quality control - it’s not acceptable to crash during the payment and just expect users to wait a month to get their money back. Get the tickets via another route if you can.

2020-03-03

Struggling

I am struggling to get this app to do all that was promised.

In 2018 I was a prolific train user and all was well - mobile tickets worked fantastically, and the infrastructure in stations responded to it well.

Over the last couple of months I have been using trains occasionally again, but there is no offer to download a mobile ticket to the app. Collect at satiation is the only option.

Today’s journey, I duplicated on the Trainline app and where GWR only offered collection at station, Trainline offered me a mobile ticket to

My apple wallet.

Various logging out and re-logging in plus deletion of app and reinstall later a phone call to customer services was fruitless. Call handler was pleasant enough. Explained that it was an IT thing and not his department so put me on hold while he went to ‘walk around the corner’ to see if anyone from that department were in. They were, but would not speak to me! Handler asked if I could call back tomorrow after 0900 when it would be quieter, but could not guarantee there would be tickets at this price / availability 24 hrs later.

So tickets bought through Trainline.

What are you doing?

Update:

3/3/20

Still no option for digital tickets when other companies offer them.

Still no response to what was written above from nearly 3 weeks ago!

2019-12-27

all that is wrong with rail privatisation

For an iPhone app that it lacks wallet and Apple Pay Integration. Instead you are forced to use a credit card entry screen which may look good on a web browser on a laptop but clearly doesn’t work in a phone. And as for the E ticket well it’s an idea they haven’t actually implemented in any way considered usable.

I also want to highlight that some of its bookings come out wrong. Specifically I just ordered three adults one with a Railcard to London and back, but actually getting the tickets it turns out that the Railcard feature was ignored. At least knowing how bad the group tickets were handled I opted to get the tickets printed out at the station, so I can now go to the ticket office and talk about refunds and replacement. No idea about what would happen if you wanted to do the same for an E ticket. in their favour, unlike Trainline, they don’t charge you extra booking and ticket printing fees.

When people cover the failings of rail privatisation, the explosion in mediocre railway line websites that even worse applications, and the inability to get refunds from stations run by different suppliers and never covered. But every time you try to book a ticket you hit the consequences of bad decisions made by John Major and his cabinet

2019-09-03

Tortuous ticket purchasing process

The user experience of buying a ticket it slow and cumbersome. As a regular rail traveller I had hoped that this app would make buying tickets simpler but it does not. It doesn’t save your favourite journeys, you can’t get choose “off peak return” for local journeys, having to stumble through choosing your outward and return trains. And it takes ages to buy a ticket. The app never remembers by payment details, so I have to get my physical debit card from my wallet and put the details into a non-web optimised web page with tiny writing and do the whole Verified by Visa challenge. I usually give up and just get a paper ticket from the machine and use contactless. This app does not simplify anything - it makes it more inconvenient for loca journeys you need to use there and then. The only plus is the planner and live departures works well.

2019-08-15

Frustrating

Terrible user experience.

Paid for ticket online using laptop. Selected e-ticket. Which is usually downloadable from a confirmation email. Not with GWR. Only by reading small print do I find you must download app and log in.

Downloaded app and tried to login. Could not get password accepted. Clicked option to change password. This takes you to website where ever attempt to re-set password fails, showing error message : ‘password must be at least 8 characters’. But was actually inputting a 10-character password.

This is frustrating and stressful especially when traveling shortly.

Don’t force people to use your complex login process in order to travel, especially when that process has bugs that trip up the user. Fail.

2019-07-15

Terrible App

Absolutely terrible app. Does what it needs to do badly. When you purchase your tickets the app gives you the option to store your credit card for future use but it never does. So for every ticket purchase you have to re-enter your card details. Before the last update, it used to work and your card was stored and purchasing tickets was easier. This latest update broke what used to work.

On top of that, when you’ve bought your ticket and need the e-ticket on your phone you’re presented with a network error on a constant basis, even though you have full network access. I’ve phoned customer service about this two months ago and they are aware of the problem. Their solution was to delete the app and reinstall it. So for every ticket I buy now, I have to delete the app re-download it and sign in then attempt at retrieving my tickets, just so I can present my e-ticket for inspection. What a joke !!!

2019-06-12

Stick with paper tickets

I was really hoping this would be the resolution to the frequently broken ticket machine at my local station, but unfortunately the app is just as unreliable. Often the tickets don’t show up in the app after I’ve purchased them, meaning either I need to purchase a paper ticket anyway, or I miss my train waiting for the ticket to load (this morning it took 15 minutes to show up after purchasing). It’s also frustrating having to type in full card details every time I purchase a ticket - there used to be an option to save card details, which didn’t seem to work. Rather than fixing this, it seems to have been removed entirely and the website page for adding my card details doesn’t work either.

2019-04-28

Big problems for fast purchase

There are a number of problems with the overall user experience but two that really bug me are:

- when I've purchased a ticket but there is a long lag with endless refreshes until it appears in My Tickets. A nightmare when you are at the ticket barriers with minutes to go.

- when you try and buy a ticket to beat the queue only to discover it has forgotten your card details again. It doesn't ever remember mine anymore.

Provided I remember to purchase the ticket the night before the app is fractionally more convenient than risking a long queue for ticket collection on an early morning.

2019-03-15

Looks nice but doesn’t work

Far too many options need to be selected to get to ticket purchase point (why not allow option to save frequent journeys/ticket types) but this is as nothing compared to the truly diabolical unavailability of the payment server. Out of 35 attempts to buy tickets over last 6 months, it has not been possible to complete the process and actually buy a ticket 32 times. I contacted GWR support whose answer was to suggest that I turned my phone off and on again (duh!) or if that didn’t work then to uninstall and reinstall the app (double duh!) in order “to clear a transient payment issue.” Transient does not adequately describe 32 failures out of 35 attempts over 6 months. Epic fail. Back to paper tickets for me.

2019-03-09

Doesn’t work for Group purchases

For individual purchases (1 person, 1 ticket, 1 phone) I guess this is an improvement. However for more than 1 person travelling in a group this is useless. Although the App allows you to buy multiple tickets (and add a Railcard if applicable) the automatic gate will only allow 1 person through at a time. The official solution (given by GWR) appears to be for the lead passenger to go through the barrier then start passing their phone backwards and forwards across the barrier to let other members of the party through !!!! Or you can call a member of staff, explain the situation and they will let you through - which negates the whole purpose of an automated system. I can’t believe such a straightforward system could have been implemented so badly. Solution would be to allow a lead passenger to transfer e-tickets to other members of their party.... oh and allow e-tickets to be stored in their Apple Wallet (which I believe it doesn’t do). Huge fail GWR 👎🏻😞

2019-02-20

Terrible

Despite being connected to Wi-fi / mobile data at random requests I am unable to load and produce my ticket barcode when requested. (I have a phone in good working order, with the latest version of the app and have no other troubles on other apps)

The page simply does not load. This has happened at least 8 times over the last 2 weeks and I’ve been either made to stand at the station for 10-20 minutes until this loads (despite showing a booking confirmation email for that particular service) or threatened with having to purchase a new tickets. Embarrassing and time consuming. Especially given the fact I make the same journey week days at £30 a day.

I will be returning to the less eco friendly paper ticket use. Not good service and disappointing reaction from numerous GWR staff. Sort it out.

2019-02-19

Unreliable

This app often leaves me waiting at the barriers, or waiting when I need to show my ticket, as it “busy wheels” for 10-15 seconds when I try to view my tickets. These are tickets that I’ve already viewed in the app to make sure they are there. What on earth is it doing?

Another problem is that old tickets often remain in the app after I have already completed the journey. I currently have 3 old tickets in “travel for today “ section.

Finally, the UI for this app could be improved. The first time I used it, it took me a while to find my ticket for travel, since when you select the Tickets option at the bottom it takes you to the page for buying tickets. Only after a while did I notice amongst all the options for buying a ticket there was a button to view already purchased tickets. Surely if you run the app around the time of a train that you have a ticket for, it should go straight to showing that ticket?

2019-02-04

Purchasing journey

As my local station has no ticket machine, I was excited to discover I could buy my tickets via the GWR App. Unfortunately, that excitement was quickly replaced by disbelief at the awful user experience and the inability to display my e-tickets when required to do so.

Buying a ticket for a frequently used peak return journey should not require me to specify the stations; the type of journey; the outbound and inbound trains; select the ticket (there’s only ever one choice); additional transport needs and delivery method, and that’s before you complete the actual payment part of the journey.

This brings me to my second gripe, accessing the purchased e-ticket. I have spent more time at my destination waiting for the ticket to be displayed than I ever did queuing for a ticket and this despite having a 5 bar 4G signal!

On one occasion I was forced to buy another ticket and told I could claim the value of the elusive e-ticket back, only to discover there was a £10 standard charge for doing this - my ticket cost £6.80!

2018-12-19

Ignore the review score

The mobile app used to be ok. However numerous releases have rendered it almost unusable just check the recent reviews. Current rating is 4.4 whereas it should be 1.4 I think. The constant “technical issue” error is unforgivable as it is just an excuse for a badly developed and tested app. Most of the time I can’t see any live train info or book tickets or reserve seats. The constant releases say “we’ve listened to your feedback” - well I can advise they haven’t “listened” to mine or many others like me

So not sure who they are “listening” to. Please GWR just spend some money, sack your developers and get some decent ones in as the app could be so good and nectar points are a nice freebie:)

2018-10-26

Utterly useless and untested

I've never wanted to review an app before but this one is so awful someone needs to point out that it's developers are stealing a living. So obviously not tested by anyone. Full of bugs and unpredictable behaviour. GWR app servers response to any request in the app go at about 1mph. Logs you out every five seconds and each login attempt takes 30 seconds to check your login. Only 1 in 10 attempts actually log you in. Mostly does nothing. Once logged in it's a toss up if your new ticket appears. And no option to log back out and try again. After 25 tries to log in today called GWR help who said this happens all the time, you need to delete the app and reinstall it. Third time I've had that advice. Your GWR app ladies & gentleman. Do they actually have a CIO?

2018-10-07

Could be great

But it is let down but a few features which sometimes are stressful. The app doesn’t seem to work offline at all, I’ve been on a train trying to show the ticket inspector my ticket, but due to no signal I couldn’t show him my ticket. Needs the ability to download the ticket to the app to have offline.

Not sure why I have to sign in every time I buy a ticket, everyday sign in and everyday type the same payment details. Why, like every other app, can it not remember who I am and what my payment details are. I just want an app to quickly buy a ticket and jump on the train.

Apart from that it is convenient.

2018-10-06

Very good app but…

I’ve been using GWR for the past 2 years as it’s the only line that travels nearest to my university and I’ve been impressed with the development of the app with how they provide e-tickets, showing the cheapest tickets available, etc. But one criticism I have is that I am not able to save my e-ticket on to Apple wallet, just like you can with flight boarding passes.

I know I could screenshot the barcode, but it’s a pain to open pictures to access this. By having the option to add the ticket to my Apple wallet, this would make things like getting through barriers and ticket inspections much quicker - rather than having to open the phone every time.

2018-10-01

Room for improvement - understatement of the year

A really helpful train ticket app would enable:

1. "Show split ticket options"

2. Enable purchase of more than one ticket in the same direction, e.g. split tickets

3. Saving favourite train journeys which would enable a simple "Buy this ticket combination again" irrespective of the number of tickets, allowing for change in departure time.

4. Persist e-tickets to local storage instead of needing to refresh tickets every time the app is opened.

However, this app provided none of these features. Why, well ...

1. This would a) save customers money and b) less revenue for GWR so don't bank on this feature appearing anytime soon.

2. This would make the prior point easier for customers but reduce GWR revenue so guess that's another "No"

3. This would save so much time for repeat purchases.

4. This is *so* frustrating. Trying to get "My tickets" 'Refreshed' between exiting tube and platform ticket gate is pot luck at Paddington with saturated mobile networks. Also why does it require login when Touch ID could be used to secure the entire app. Has anyone from GWR actually tried using this app as a commuter out of Paddington?

2018-07-24

Glitches

My ticket that I haven’t used yet for today is showing as expired... a little bit worrying as I’ve not even picked it up yet, very glad I opted for picking it up at the station and haven’t relied on this app to show my ticket... worrying now incase it won’t allow me to print my tickets when I get there!!! I’m an IT pro and find this one a bit confusing, imagine what it’s like for someone with no idea about computer systems??? Needs a review on data validation for sure! Would expect that to be picked up in big testing, poor show, glitchy development, how did this even get onto the apple store!?!

2018-05-18

E-ticket doesn’t work at barrier

Had this app worked it would have been a really useful tool. I tried the e-ticket option when buying my ticket as the queues to collect normal tickets at the station can be stupidly long. After a scrum to get to the barrier I scan my e-ticket on the scanner and nothing. People start getting agitated behind me. I come out of the queue and try and speak to a station attendant and they are busy or ignoring me. I eventually get one of their attentions and he says ‘you’ve just got to scan it on there mate’ (like I didn’t know that already). By this time everyone else is through the barriers. I try all scanners and nothing. The guy ends up using his pass and let’s me through. Come on GWR. Sort it out so it works as it’s supposed to to prevent others looking like a complete plonker.

The attendant is walking through my coach now asking for tickets... let’s see if this works!! I feel another embarrassment coming.

2018-04-28

Could learn a lot from the Virgin Trains app...

The GWR app is bit cumbersome with lots of different layers to go through. It just doesn’t seem very user friendly. Plus each time I’ve tried to use it today it kept closing itself. I also can’t find a way to change the station I would like to pick my tickets up from. It always defaults to the station my ticket is valid from but this isn’t always the most convenient place for me to collect them or I may not be starting my journey from there and I can find no way of changing this on the app which means I have to go to the website which doesn’t seem to be working either. Gave up in the end and bought my GWR train tickets on the Virgin Train app for the same price. At least it means I can pick my ticket up now from any station.

2018-02-25

Irritating

They’ve split journey planning from train tickets, but you can buy train tickets from the journey planning section, and have to do a journey plan in the train tickets section. That’s the main problem - it’s a disjointed app that makes it difficult to do the simplest things. For example, more often then not if I use the train tickets section with the default ‘departing now’ option, the app fails to bring up a list of trains, and instead goes to a duplicate (but rubbish, ugly and clearly just a page on the website) page to re-enter the route plan, possibly because the app can’t reconcile ‘departing now’ with the fixed 15 minute departure windows. But a basic error that makes the app so irritating it’s difficult to use. Worse than that, it doesn’t do it every time, so I get lulled into a false sense of security!

2018-02-10

App regressed

Horrific.

The process for purchasing tickets is redundant, time-consuming, and severely out-dated. Each time you seek to purchase a single ticket you have to log in, make the purchase, find a link in your email confirmation, and then print this out at a station. Buying one ticket this is not an issue. Buying several makes this an absolute waste of time as you have to go through the ENTIRE process of logging in, purchasing, etc. for each ticket.

No ticket can be tracked or stored for use later in the app. You now have to go through your email to get every ticket. Where once you could use your phone as your ticket, you now have to have each one printed out. This all defeats the purpose of having an app, no?

Several buttons in the app seem not to function from time to time, too.

The website, which is also clunky, is better than the recent “updates” made to the app.

My advice: Use this app for referencing train times only, which you can also do more easily and efficiently with several other apps. GWR app “updates” are out-of-date regressions.

2018-02-02

Poor management

The failure to properly test this App before release meant that I t received almost universal disapproval. Very poor management control.

Recently the App has begun telling me that my purchase has failed, notwithstanding that the purchase HAS succeeded and a confirmation email received. It has also now stopped putting tickets in my ‘wallet ‘ so that I have to revert to the email with the collection reference. As another reviewer recently commented, it is necessary to sign in on each use. Finally, the App will not default to any preferences so that I always have to put in my Railcard.

Needless to say, the previous App was able to provide all these facilities.

2018-01-18

So bad it’s untrue

Actually makes using the website far easier and more user friendly, which is quite an accomplishment. Doesn’t make any part of booking a train ticket from A to B simple, easy or repeatable.

Jan 2018 update.

Just tried it again and it’s still abhorrent.

It now shows you your collection references for your train journeys, which you can access by signing in. This, is a good thing.

However, even though you’ve signed in, it won’t load your favourite journeys. This is a bad thing. So you have to set them up again. But, you can’t preemptively add these; you have to buy a ticket for a journey before you can add it as a favourite. Which makes no sense so this is also a bad thing.

Unlike the website, you can only buy one ticket at a time, so can’t add four or five tickets to your basket, pay for them all together and get one collection reference.

Instead you have to pay for each one individually and get a collection reference for each one individually. This process is made worse because it forces you to sign in again every time you press buy. Buy five tickets, sign in from scratch five times. Because having fingerprint ID or Apple Pay is clearly not good enough.

Still, at least it means that if someone steals my phone and gets past the lock screen, they won’t be able to randomly buy train tickets on my account!

Because I’ve deleted the app again.

2018-01-11

CJ

Can I say it is a pleasure, that a company have their act together and produced a booking facility that is user friendly, were as the majority of the people who produce these web sites appear to think that Mr Jones and all his friends and aquaintances are IT literate the Majority are not , also the people who run these Companies must be on the Dim side to allow these poor sites into the Public Domain, it reflects on the company hugely This site is excellent well done.

WELL DONE GWR I am not sure about the CEO yet, he appears to be reasonable after riding on his beautiful 800 rolling stock. With love and best wishes

Please read as it Is intended

2017-11-21

Maybe the worst travel app ever

You won't read many bad reviews of this terrible app because, instead of asking you to rate it, the app asks if you like it. If you answer "no", it takes you to a feedback screen instead of the app store

I haven't got time to list how bad it is but it takes about 10 clicks to buy a ticket - on the rare occasions it actually agrees to sell you one. Then there's a three step process to pick the ticket up from a machine. By which time, the app will probably ask you to sign in again. Often, it won't let you so you have to go through the nightmare of persuading FGW to refund the ticket you couldn't pick up

The only reason to use this dreadful app is to earn nectar points on big ticket purchases. Otherwise, I'd go for trainline

Great Western Railway

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App Store: Customer Ratings

Ratings & Reviews

Update has many bugs

Update wiped my bookings

Lost bookings

Live times has broke

Update loses data without warning

Broken

Beware

A backwards step for train bookings, and misery for frequent travellers

£5 admin fee on ticket refund

Excellent app

Quicker than before

Booking

Great way to get shafted

Works well most of the time

Avoid!

Great help

Mr

Amateur compared to Trainline

Useless

Easy to navigate

Add railcard

Straightforward

Railcards

Terrible - Minus 5

Useless App

Quick and easy but limited

GWR Ticket App

Best for GWR fans

Doesn’t work on iPad

Lost important features

A useful app.

good app

Cant access my railcard

No seat numbers 😡

Fine but could be better

No virtual ticket

Basic - missing key functionality for a travel app

Fantastic app

Unstable

Every one wants a review🙁

Newton Abbot

Works well

Great booking

Be careful using this app

QR Code

Stupid app charged me but ticket no where to be found

Bad everything

Bad experience

Mr John Irwin

App doesn’t work.

Bring back features in ‘Plan’

Utterly useless!!!

Pretty good, not always easy to use

No buffet car !! Rarely hot coffee available at seat side but lovely staff!

Continual log out prevents use of tickets

Wish it would stay signed in!

Just to say Thank you Mr. Garion!

Ticketing Nightmare: App's Failures Costing Us Time and Money!

Very unreliable, cheats you of money