GTR (Govia Thameslink Railway) Review

Shame we cant give -star ratings. Just been sat at Finsbury park waiting for a relief drivee for 15 mins. He turns up and 30 seconds later the train is cancelled as is the next one. Long wait for the next train....... IF it runs. This company is a blight on the railway, absolute disgrace and I pray the government strip them of the franchise and sack the lot of them. Ruining peoples lives with being constantly late to work, and late home never seeing the family. Goviafilth

Not happy with cancellations. The only thing I satisfied with is the new trains that improve standing capacity during the peaks.

On the 31 May, i flew out of Gatwick Airport and decided to catch the Thameslink
from London Bridge. However, the train suddenly stopped at Horley (Due to signalling failures).

All passengers who did not want to miss their flights were forced to catch a taxi to the airport. If you can imagine the panic, you will understand. (And yes, the taxi was at our own cost)

Processed a claim and after being declined once, decided to try again because i believed that i was right. The second claim was a success.

As a result, whilst I hate pessimistic, unfortunately, this organisation receives
a poor review.

I wish that all train companies would treat customers with respect. The customer pays the bills. Look after your customer and they will look after you (by returning and paying for your service).

Absolute embarrassment, my train is cancelled or delayed nearly everyday. Lost for words on how terrible your Thameslink service is.

Primary focus is to not run trains and come up with excuses and contractual loopholes to justify this.

Now Thameslink have no guards on board, it makes it impossible for me to get on a train. I have to book wheelchair ramp assistance through Southern but the trains operating are Thameslink. Due to Thameslink not having guards on board my wheelchair assistance has been ignored for consecutive times, leaving me stranded & without transport. They offer further assistance I.e. taxi services but then the taxis get cancelled!!!!!
Southern never let me down, Thameslink is downright discriminatory not having an available disability services on every single train, period.

delayed trains that, not only arrive 10-15 minutes later than scheduled (due to added stations), but also stop at train stations for 5+ minutes for no apparent f***ing reason. F*** off govia, it's time to renationalize.

One of the worst train companies in the world! Always delays and cancellations, a lot of them are due to "no available train driver". I wouldn't even give it one star, but had to to get this posted. The staff aren't helpful either; when there are problems the staff suddenly disappear. Only have to use this train because I need to commute to work. If it wasn't for work I would not this train service!

Don't know the station BUT don't ever use thameslink...horrible...stuck for hours, poor customer service and their emergency procedures are very very poor

How can I commute to work when you keep cancelling all your trains to and from sevenoaks. It's not fair! You have taken a 1/4 of my wage for my season ticket but your trains seem to be non existent and we have all been hit bit by fare increase earlier this year which was because it was promised to introduced to be more and better trains? It's daylight robbery! If you can avoid using this train service please do!

Dreadful train service, company, customer service (if you can even call it that) awful, awful AWFUL

Have been using great northern for years out of no choice. Trains are consistently cancelled because of no drivers and numerous other excuses and delays are the norm. Information provided during these incidents is very poor and organisation More

A parody of a train franchise that never has enough drivers/working trains. Service is so poor that you have to check the service update every single time you intend to travel so you can order your Uber ahead of the rush.

If they had more than one window open at kings cross...during evening rush hrs... they may gain some plus points!

Buries head in the sand over recent timetable issues. Don't / can't / won't care as they have your money.

Their customer service is terrible. When I called them the man was so rude and was not willing to help me at all.
Their train stations are managed appallingly. Their cancellations and delays ruin my commutes on a daily basis.

You've ruined people's lives and continue to do so.

Horrible service, a company that shouldn't be allowed to run a rickshaw service in a 3rd world country

One of the worst transport services in the Western Hemisphere. Consistently late, overcrowding, extortionate fares and yet there seems to be a justification for a 3.2% rise in season ticket costs (without receiving a seat on many occasions). Would someone please educate me as to the fairness of this kind of system?

P.S. Anyone from Govia on a disgusting salary and/or bonus is not welcome to comment. Very happy to ruin your day if you do so.

Loved Thameslink. Their Class 700 was one of the smoothest train rides I've taken.

My morning Thameslink train to work is only 10% of the time is on time. Usually, it is at least 2-5 minutes delayed, sometimes 10 or even 15.

26.5.19 I flew from Izmir in Turkey yesterday.The journey took a little over three hours.Today i travelled from Gatwick to Southampton.I left Gatwick at 11.30 and arrived at Southampton at 4pm via Porsmouth because this train company couldn't run their train set today.They blamed their problems on "congestion".Too many trains on their track? Hardly an excuse really.GWR got me from Portsmouth to Southampton.Southern really weren't capable of even doing that.One train had a broken radio and had to be taken out of service.No spare radio onboard then? Then they "lost" a train,no idea where it was apparently.pi*s po*r.

They run shiteastern . Thieving scum. They and their shareholders should be ashamed.

Thameslink only recently came to Greenwich (Arsenal) but only on a paper... At the beginning there was a "delayed" sign next to it only to become "canceled" after I let some SE rail trains pass. If there was a bit of respect towards the passengers we would receive heads up and we would have all been in one of the previous SE trains.
ONCE I managed to board the train and we were at the London Bridge for 15 Mon waiting for the new driver to take over but he never showed up and we had to leave the train at Blackfriars.
If I knew you were this short I would have applied for the driver position and leave NHS.
As many before, and for the sake of passengers, I hope TfL takes over the line and paints trains orange.

Avoid - if you can!



Unfortunately I have no other option from where I live so I have to suffer the incompetence of Govia Thameslink as I hold onto my job by my fingertips.

Very profitable company though....

Can't say that this is the best TOC ever. Trains aren't always on time and staff are sometimes rude and bad mannered. The service is only good if you are lucky.

Without a doubt Govia is the worse train franchise in the UK. Possibly in Europe too.
Dreadful train services, cancellation all day long, not enough trains or drivers. People can t get to work! This company is a misery to its costumers and should be scrapped of the franchise and should be given to professionals.

One of the worst train companies in the UK - probably Europe.

A shocking service from a useless company that could't be trusted to run a train set.

Only because I can t give nil

They are an utter disgrace. They need to be sacked & prevented from working elsewhere so they don t stuff up other companies too.

I am always amazed just how bad the Southern service is - Particularly between Portsmouth and Brighton. Regular delays I can live with. Trains that are so old and dirty I can live with. No toilets on a train with journeys in excess of 90 minutes though is not acceptable. The worst this about them though is the quality of customer service which is just abysmal!

Expensive, unreliable, packed trains & appear to genuinely despise their customers... Avoid

I can't put into words how much I hate these scum bags for ruining my life.

Garbage service, constant chaos, no explanations, just some pre-recorded apologies

Useless tin pot pathetic excuse for a third world railway. The trains break down, the drivers get lost and I'm considering emigrating to get away from them. Would not buy again.

I have been using Thameslink for nearly 30 years. Or trying to, at least. After a brief attempt at adequacy in the first half of 2019, they have reverted to type.
Complacent incompetence in operations and communication is firmly back in its familiar place, and the misery of the passengers is made worse by the knowledge that when this latest bunch of chauffeur-driven shysters trouser their golden handshake, the next franchise to mismanage the service will be just as useless, just as amoral and walk away just as rich.

Your train service is the reason the UK has such a s**t productivity gap with Europe. I hope your service is automated soon and you all get made redundant! You re literally shafting the country.

The sooner this joke of a firm gets taken over by TfL the better.

I use this companies services on a daily basis, the trains are constantly cancelled at the last minute and no one appears to know what s going on...

Absolute shambles, can t seem to organise anything.
we don t know and aren t told anything .
What are the government doing about this outfit?
Surely someone s head should be on the block.

GTR as a franchise has had its ups and downs but overall have been fairly successful revitalising transport in the southeast. Their southeastern franchise has done exceptional refurbishment work with the entire electrostar fleet being completely redone. The networkers have also been improved with most being refurbished with new disabled persons features. The Thameslink program introduction was a bit of a disaster at first but now provides an extremely frequent and reliable service through central London and to far reaching destinations. The class 700s are modern spacious and comfortable. The amount of complaints Govia get is really unjustified. Most complaints are one off experiences that are blown completely out of proportion by the customers. Their are many worse franchises operating in this country and people who think nationalisation is a good idea look at the mess that was British rail. A lot of people who complain about the modern British railways like southeastern obviously don t remember how garbage Connex was.

GTR offer a modern fast service that does not deserve the hate it gets. Their trains are clean and comfortable. They offer a wide range of useful routes to many destinations.

Yes I m a railway enthusiast but that doesn t mean I don t have an opinion. After using every company in the uk I can tell you Govia run some of the best.