Rosie While

@The_Theme_Scene @JakeRWeston I took a picture of the officer for proof should I need it

@JakeRWeston @RosieWhile How did she know it was a cop assuming he wasn't in uniform?

£101.09. 1 Hour. No Seat. 8 Months Pregnant £101.09 for a 1 hour 3 minute journey into London Paddington with @GWRHelp. Only 4/5 carriages available during peak time, leaving passengers crammed in like sardines. I’m 8 months pregnant and spent the journey standing alongside dozens of other commuters because there simply weren’t enough seats. To make matters worse, I was standing directly in front of a British Transport Police officer who never once looked up to notice I was heavily pregnant or offer any assistance. Where is the care? How can Great Western Railway possibly justify charging £101.09 for a service where passengers are forced to stand for over an hour, despite paying some of the highest rail fares in Europe? This isn’t a one-off either. Around 50% of my journeys are disrupted by overcrowding, signal failures, trains being cancelled because staff don’t turn up, or broken trains. Passengers are paying premium prices for a service that is consistently failing them. We deserve better. @GWRHelp @nationalrailenq – how do you justify this level of service for these fares? #GWR #RailFail #PassengerRights #Pregnancy #LondonPaddington #commuterlife

@_VN5 I’m standing by the loos 🤣

Anyone else think there’s something odd about this? - new account. Blue tick. - didn’t bother to ask for a seat, but happy to complain on the internet with an essay - instead blames everyone else for not noticing the bump - seems to have got fair way into the carriage

@Petedefeet222 This was first class :)

@RosieWhile I’ll wager 1st class wasn’t full

@GWRHelp Thank you for your reply, but I’m disappointed that it feels like a generic response rather than one that addresses the points I raised. Suggesting I use priority seating isn’t a solution when there was nowhere to sit. The train was so overcrowded that passengers were standing throughout the carriage, including around the priority seats. Telling customers to travel off-peak or buy Advance tickets also isn’t realistic for many of us. Like thousands of other commuters, I work standard office hours and don’t have the luxury of choosing quieter trains. We have to travel when we need to travel, yet we’re paying premium prices for a service that is consistently overcrowded. We were also told on the day that the train had fewer carriages because others were out of service for repairs, I’ll say! If reduced capacity is something you know about in advance, perhaps fares should reflect the level of service passengers are actually receiving. It’s difficult to justify paying full price for a significantly reduced service. My complaint wasn’t simply that the train was busy. It was about the gap between the price paid and the standard of service provided. I don’t feel your response has acknowledged that concern or offered any meaningful resolution, so I will be taking this forward as a formal complaint. I’d also like to address some of the comments I’ve received online. This wasn’t posted to gain followers or to complain for the sake of it. I rarely use X/Twitter, but after yet another overcrowded journey, I was frustrated and exhausted by what has become a regular experience. I wanted to highlight the reality of paying high fares for a service where so many passengers are left standing. This wasn’t just about me, it was about everyone on that train. Regarding the police officer, my expectation wasn’t that they could fix the overcrowding. I simply hoped they might acknowledge what passengers were experiencing or raise it with the appropriate staff. Even a brief acknowledgment would have been nice.

Hi there Rosie, thank you for getting in touch. I am sorry to hear about your experience on board one of our services. Many train tickets are flexible, allowing customers greater choice. This does mean, however, that some services can become unexpectedly busy. We do all we can to ensure the busiest known services have a greater capacity and we use all available carriages where possible. If you are unable to stand for extended periods, please do feel free to make use of our priority seating. These can be found at the end of each carriage. I am sorry you feel the price of this ticket is too high as well. These fares are regulated by the government and a number of different factors are considered when setting them such as track access charges. We offer advance singles which are cheaper if the more flexible ticket price is too high. I will record your feedback on this. To raise a formal complaint for investigation, please fill in our complaints form at railhelp.co.uk/gwr/make-a-com…. The customer support team will be in touch as soon as they can - Rose