Great Western Railway. Passenger s Charter. November 2018

Transcription

1 Great Western Railway Passenger s Charter November 2018

2 What s inside? What is our Passenger s Charter? How we ll help you plan your journey Making it easy to buy tickets If you need help when you travel What to expect at our stations What to expect on our trains If things go wrong including delays and compensation How to get in touch with us Great Western Railway route map

3 5 What is our Passenger s Charter? Our Passenger s Charter is our commitment to you. We work hard to make sure every journey you take with us is easy and enjoyable. And our charter tells you what you can expect from all of us at Great Western Railway (GWR), on our trains and at our stations. It sets out the minimum level of service we re committed to. Every year, we review and refresh our charter. We work with Transport Focus, London TravelWatch and TravelWatch SouthWest to make sure it s up to date and fair for all of our customers. If you have any suggestions for us, we d love to hear them. You can let our Customer Support team know your thoughts on You can get copies of this charter from the staff at our stations, from our Customer Support team or from our website, Treating our customers fairly We put our customers at the heart of everything we do and every decision we make. Making sure you re safe and well, and that we always treat you fairly, is our highest priority. We want you to have a great experience with GWR. So we make it easy to talk to us, and we ll always listen to you and take your individual circumstances into account. Our Customer Report We ll publish our Customer Report every year to update you on our plans and tell you about the improvements we ve made. We ll also let you know how we re performing against our customer satisfaction, reliability and punctuality targets. The National Rail Conditions of Travel Our Passenger s Charter goes hand in hand with the National Rail Conditions of Travel. These conditions explain the contract you have with us when you buy a ticket and use it to travel. You ll find them on our website, or you can ask our Customer Support team or the staff at our stations for a copy.

4 7 How we ll help you plan your journey We know how important it is to give you everything you need to plan your journey properly, and to keep you up to date with any changes. That s why we offer advice, timetables and information about travelling with GWR in all sorts of ways. Here s how you can stay up to date: Check the information displays at our stations. Read our leaflets at our stations or on our website. Go to for train and journey information, to book tickets and to print your own personal timetable. Follow us on for live journey information, service updates and to have your questions answered 24 hours a day. Like us on Facebook at Sign up to our free journey alerts at Download our free app from your app store or text GWRapp01 to 86688, so you can plan your journey, buy tickets and check train times and journey information. Call our Customer Support team on You can also listen for our announcements at our stations and on our trains. We give full and accurate live information before and during your journey. This includes information on how our trains are running, as well as information about our station facilities, promotions and fares. National Rail Enquiries and Traveline You can also get information about all UK trains from National Rail Enquiries. Just call them on or go to Traveline can help you with local and national bus information. You can call them on or go to

5 9 Making it easy to buy tickets Our Buy Before You Board policy means you need to get a ticket before you get on a train. So we make it as easy as we can for you to buy tickets for our journeys. And we offer a range of tickets to suit different circumstances and budgets. You can find information on our website at or speak to our station staff who are happy to help. Go to to buy tickets in advance We can post them to you or have them waiting for you at the station either at the ticket office or in one of our ticket machines. You can also print your tickets at home if that s easier. Download our free app to buy M-tickets You can buy M-tickets for some routes and ticket types with our GWR app. To get the app, text GWRapp01 to or search GWR in your app store. We ll be adding more routes and ticket types to the app soon, but until then you can find everything you need at Go to the ticket office at any of our stations to buy our full range of tickets We ll explain our range of ticket and fare options and help you find the best one for your journey. You can use cash and most credit and debit cards to pay each office displays a list of the payment cards it accepts in the window. You ll find the opening hours of our ticket offices at or displayed at our stations, along with details of how to buy tickets if the office is shut. You shouldn t have to queue for more than five minutes to buy a ticket from our ticket office at peak time, or more than three minutes at other times. Peak times are 7am 9am and 4pm 7pm, Monday to Friday. If we find there are very long queues, we ll open extra windows or put on extra ticket staff to speed things up if we can.

6 11 Use our ticket machines to buy tickets to use straightaway At a ticket machine, you can buy a wide range of tickets available for immediate use. You can also pick up tickets you have booked online or over the phone. Most of our stations have them, and they take cash and/or most credit and debit cards. Some tickets may not be available, depending on the time of day. You can buy these in advance on our website, at the ticket office or through our Sales team. You can check whether your local station has a ticket machine at www. GWR.com or by calling National Rail Enquiries on Call us on to buy tickets over the phone We re open from 6am to 11pm, 7 days a week. We can post your tickets to you or have them waiting for you at the station either at the ticket office or in one of our ticket machines. If you need help when you travel, please call our Assisted Travel team. They ll help you plan your journey, buy your tickets and arrange any support you need on your trip. There s more about this on page 12. Load up your Oyster card to travel round London Oyster cards make it really easy to travel around London. You can use your card for GWR journeys between any stations in the London fare zones 1 6, and as far as West Drayton and Greenford. You can put travelcards and pay as you go (PAYG) credit on them. For Oyster PAYG, you need to touch in on the yellow reader at the station where you start your journey, and touch out at the end of your trip. That way you ll be charged the right fare. We do cap our Oyster fares. So, if you take several journeys in zones 1 and 2 on the same day, the most you ll pay is the cost of a travelcard for those zones. If you don t touch in and out, you ll be charged the maximum fare for your trip, and we won t cap the cost. You can use an Oyster card with a travelcard on it with Oyster PAYG as well. But you can only use your Oyster PAYG with paper tickets if you re at an intermediate station. These have a yellow Oyster reader where you can touch in. It s really important that you make sure you have enough money on your Oyster PAYG to cover your journey. If you don t, you won t be able to use the card again until you top up the amount. You might also get a penalty fare or be reported for prosecution. Use smartcards for your season tickets We re testing smartcards (a bit like Oyster) across our network. Once we re happy they work for our customers, we ll start setting them up in more places. You ll then be able to load your card with your season ticket and just touch in and out to get to and from your train more quickly. Buy PlusBus for unlimited bus travel at your destination You can buy PlusBus with your ticket; it s available in more than 70 towns on the GWR network. You can also get a season ticket version. Go to for more details.

7 13 If you need help when you travel We want to make sure everyone who travels with us has an easy and comfortable journey including our older customers and people with a disability. So if you need support getting on and off the train, navigating the station or planning your journey, we re more than happy to help. We ve put together a leaflet called Making Rail Accessible. There are several different versions. Our Easy Read version is for people with a learning disability and it s available at We also have Braille and audio versions. Just ask a member of staff at one of our stations for a copy, or call our Customer Support team on for more details. How we can help If you re planning a journey with us, you can book some support for when you travel. You just need to let us know 24 hours before your trip. Then we ll: help you find your nearest station with the best facilities for you help you plan the easiest route for your journey make sure our staff know you re coming and what support you need give you all the help we can along the way. If your local station or the station you need to get to isn t very accessible, don t worry. We ll arrange for you to get to and from a station that is, free of charge. Giving us enough notice If you can t give us 24 hours notice of your journey, we ll do our best to support you when you travel. But we can t guarantee that we ll be able to give you the same level of help.

8 15 How to book support for your journey You can get in touch with our Assisted Travel team from 7am 10pm, every day except Christmas Day. They can also help you buy tickets and make seat reservations. You can: call them free on dial Textphone free on You can also book through our website: Other useful numbers You can get more information about trains and journey times from National Rail Enquiries. Their phone and Textphone number is , and they re available 24 hours a day. Our mobility scooter permit scheme If you have a mobility scooter, we re happy for you to bring it with you on certain trains, as long as you have a permit. The only exceptions are concerned with certain sizes and weights, which may make the scooter unsuitable or unsafe for our trains. You can find out more about this and apply for a permit by calling our Customer Support team on or going to You won t need a permit if your mobility scooter can be folded down so it is no bigger than an average large suitcase; that way it can go in the luggage rack. You ll need to be able to take the scooter on and off the train yourself, or have someone with you who can help. Priority Seat Cards We always ask our customers to give up priority seats for people who need them more. But it s not always obvious why someone needs a seat. If you need to sit down when you travel, you might be able to get one of our Priority Seat Cards. That way, when you ask someone for their seat, you can show your card without any embarrassment or having to offer an explanation. To see if you can get a card, call our Assisted Travel team on or go to Parking for Blue Badge holders If you have a Blue Badge, you can park for free in all of our car parks. The badge just needs to be visible through your windscreen. Disabled People s Protection Policy (DPPP) Our Disabled People s Protection Policy (DPPP) outlines our commitment to helping our disabled and mobility-impaired customers. You can read the policy on our website at or ask our station staff for a copy of the booklet. It s also available in large print, Braille and as an audio recording from our Assisted Travel team. You can call them for free on

9 17 What to expect at our stations We work hard to make our stations pleasant and easy to use. So we regularly check everything s working properly, and keep them clean and tidy as best we can throughout the day. If you find that s not the case, please speak to a member of our Station team or call our Customer Support team on Here s what you can expect at our stations. Polite, helpful staff Everyone who works at our stations is proud to wear a smart, distinctive GWR uniform. They also wear a name badge, and they re trained to give you excellent customer service. They ll be happy to answer your questions, give you information about your journey and help with anything else you need. Waiting areas All our stations have sheltered waiting areas. Some have waiting rooms as well, which are open when our staff are at the station. We also have first class lounges at London Paddington and Cardiff Central. Here are their normal opening hours, but these can change from time to time: London Paddington Monday to Friday: 6.30am 11.30pm Saturday: 6am 9pm Sunday: 10am 11.30pm Cardiff Central Monday to Friday: 6am 6.45pm Saturday and Sunday: closed

10 19 Automatic ticket gates For extra security, and to stop people travelling without a ticket, we ve fitted automatic ticket gates at many of our stations. If you need to keep your ticket after your journey, you can show it to the staff at the gates and let them know you need to keep it. They ll open a gate for you. Getting the right train We give as much information as we can to help you find your train. All the platform details, train times and stations on each route are on our notice boards and information screens. We also have help points at most of our stations, where you can get live updates and timetable information. Changing trains If you re changing trains and the service you re on is running late, your next train may not be able to wait. That s because we don t want to make the customers already on that train run late as well. Sometimes, we will be able to wait for example, if there aren t many trains per day or if your connecting train is the last one of the day. But if not, your ticket will be valid for the next available service. Please check our timetables to see how much time you ll need to change trains before you book your tickets. Car parking Most of our stations have car parking for customers. You can check to see if your local station has a car park and how much it costs. Or you can call our Customer Support team on Toilets Many of our stations have toilets for customers and they re open when our staff are there. We work hard to keep them clean and hygienic throughout the day.

11 21 What to expect on our trains We want all of your journeys with us to be comfortable and enjoyable, so we work hard to make sure everything runs smoothly. Here s what you can expect on our trains. Food and drink We offer a range of different options for food and drink on our trains. We give details of all the catering services in our timetable, and at We ll do our best to let you know if anything changes before you travel. The Pullman is the UK s only train with fine dining. There s information about the train s routes and the impressive menus on our website. Wi-Fi Most of our services carry complimentary Wi-Fi. Search for GWR WiFi and follow the instructions on screen to activate free Wi-Fi access. Our first class service We have first class coaches on many of our trains we list which ones in our timetables. And we always try to give exceptional service to all our first class customers. This includes giving you free refreshments on the trains with a catering service. There are times when we can t serve you at your seat. When this happens, just show your ticket at the buffet to get the complimentary snacks and drinks you d like.

12 23 Room for bikes We always try to accommodate bikes on our trains, but we can t promise there ll always be room. If you d like to travel with your bike, it s best to check before you get to the station, to see which trains you can catch. You can book a bike space when you buy your ticket, and from the ticket office at the station up to two hours before you travel. As the spaces are limited, it s a good idea to book early. It s also a good idea to arrive early to give yourself plenty of time to get your bike on the train safely. If you have a foldable bike, you can put it in the luggage rack on our coaches, if there s room. When you do store your bike on our train, we re not responsible if anything happens to it for example, if it s lost, stolen or damaged. When you may not be able to put your bike on the train On some peak time trains, we can t take bikes at all. On others, we can only take bikes if customers have reserved a place for them. There may also be times when we feel there isn t enough room for your bike, or that loading it on to the train might be inconvenient or cause delays, damage or injury. If that happens, we may not carry your bike even if you booked a space. You can find out more about taking bikes on our trains in the National Rail Conditions of Travel and our leaflet Cycling by Train. Please ask the staff at any of our stations or go to for a copy. Taking animals on our trains If you d like to travel with your pet, we re happy for you to bring it. Please keep dogs on a lead and other animals in a suitable carrier. You can take up to two animals free of charge. You ll also need to keep them off the seats and make sure they aren t taking up space that other customers could use. We ll get you to where you need to be If you give yourself plenty of time but still miss a connection because our train is late, we ll help you get to the destination on your ticket. Reserving a seat When you buy your ticket, you can make one seat reservation per single journey. If you don t use your seat, we ll give it to someone else. If you buy an advance purchase ticket, it s only valid with the seat reservation that comes with it. If you haven t made a reservation in advance, we can t guarantee that you ll get a seat on the train. We plan our services around how many customers we expect to travel at certain times. But at peak time, when trains are much busier, you may have to stand. This shouldn t be for more than 20 minutes (or one stop, if that s longer). And you shouldn t have to stand on an off-peak train at all. Some of our tickets are flexible, so you can catch any of our trains. But it s a good idea to book a seat on a specific train especially for longdistance journeys. It s free to reserve a seat when you buy your ticket. If you do book a standard class seat but have to stand up because we couldn t provide it, we ll give you some vouchers as compensation or a cheque if you would prefer. If you have a first class ticket and there are no seats available, we ll give you some vouchers based on the cost of your ticket, or a cheque if you would prefer. We ll make up the difference between a first and standard class ticket for your train. If you have a season ticket, we ll work out the proportional rate (not pro rata) for your journey. To claim your compensation, please send us your: original first class ticket, or standard class ticket and seat reservation, or M-Ticket booking confirmation, or season ticket details.

13 25 You can send them to: Freepost GWR CUSTOMER SUPPORT Bringing luggage on our trains Please don t bring more luggage onto the train than you can carry. If you have large cases or other large items, you might be able to put them in our guard s van. But that s only for our high-speed trains, and we may charge you a fee. You can find out how much in the National Rail Conditions of Travel or by calling our Customer Support team on We always do our best to accommodate all your luggage, including things like surfboards. But if the train is busy, or loading your luggage could cause delays, injury or inconvenience, we won t be able to take it. We also won t take unaccompanied luggage or anything that we think might be dangerous. Travelling without a valid ticket Our Buy Before You Board policy means that all our customers must buy a ticket before they get on the train. We remind our customers about the policy by displaying signs at all our stations. If you start your journey at a station where you can t buy a ticket, you ll need to buy one on the train. Or, if you re changing trains, you ll need to buy one at the station where you change. It s really important you know if your ticket has any restrictions. You can check the terms and conditions of our tickets and railcards at Or you can call our Customer Support team on before you travel. They ll be happy to help. If you catch one of our trains without a valid ticket, at a station where you could have bought one, we ll charge you an anytime fare. That s the cost of an open single or return. You won t get any discounts, unless you have a Disabled Persons Railcard. If you re in a penalty fare area, you might be charged a penalty fare of 20, or twice the cost of a single fare to the next station whichever is more. You can find out more about the Penalty Fares Regulations in our Buy Before You Board policy. Please ask the staff at any of our stations or go to to read it. If you have a railcard, please carry it with you when you travel. If you can t show it with your discounted ticket, we ll charge you the full standard single fare for your trip. This is the same for advance ticket reservations. Your ticket is only valid if you have the reservation with you and vice versa so you need to show them together. If you don t, you may be reasonably asked to pay the full standard single fare. If you have a ticket for a specific train and you want to travel on a different one, please go to our ticket office before the train you booked leaves. You can then pay any difference between the old fare and the new fare to travel on a different train. We will charge a 10 admin fee for amendments. If you don t pay the extra fee you might have to buy a new ticket at full price on the train. Our staff check tickets at many stations, so please keep your ticket with you until you re outside the station. Travelling in a group If you want to travel in a group of 10 or more, please call our group booking service on We ll help you find the trains where you re more likely to get enough seats for everyone, and you might also be able to get a discount.

14 27 Business Direct If you travel for work, you might like to use our dedicated rail booking and business management system to organise your travel quickly and easily. You can call our team on or go to First class upgrades for mums-to-be We know it can be hard for pregnant women when there aren t any seats in our carriages. That s why we offer women who are 25 weeks into their pregnancy, and have a standard class season ticket, a first class upgrade. That way, if there aren t any standard class seats, they can sit in any first class seats that are free. If you d like to be upgraded while you re expecting, please send us a copy of your: season ticket photocard Maternity Certificate (MAT B1) or Family Health Services Authority Exemption Certificate (FP92) you can get these from your midwife or GP. You can send them to our Customer Support team at: Freepost GWR CUSTOMER SUPPORT

15 29 If things go wrong We work hard to make sure your journeys with us run smoothly. But we know that sometimes things don t go to plan. So, if your journey is delayed, we ll do everything we can to get you where you need to be. What we ll do to get you through delays We ll always try to keep you up to date about what s happening, and give you advice about your journey. If the problems with our service are very bad, we ll try to put extra members of staff on the delayed trains and at the stations they stop at. On high-speed services running over an hour late, we ll give you free soft drinks for as long as we have them on board. If the train you re on is delayed during your trip, we ll get you to the station you re going to if we can by bus or taxi if we need to. If we can t get you to that station, we ll take you back to the station that will work best for you. And if we can t do either of those things, we ll find you somewhere to stay for the night, so you can continue your journey the next day. We ll make claiming compensation for a delayed journey as easy as we can. Where possible, our crew will let you know if you re entitled to it and will give you a claim form or let you know where you can collect one. Let us know how we re doing If you ever get delayed on a journey with us, we want to hear from you. We d like the chance to make up for it and handle any complaints you have quickly and efficiently. For more on what you can expect from us and how to get in touch, check our Complaints Handling Policy. You ll find a copy at com.

16 31 How we compensate you for delays When we give you compensation, we ll ask you whether you d like rail travel vouchers or an e-voucher, which will show as credit on your GWR online account. If you d prefer to get your compensation back as money instead, just let us know and we ll send you a cheque. Below, you ll see the details of the minimum amount of compensation we pay for delays. If the delay to your journey isn t covered, please get in touch with our Customer Support team on They ll look into what happened and get back to you as quickly as they can. If your journey is delayed because of something outside the control of the rail industry, we don t normally offer any compensation. This might be things like trespassing, vandalism, someone being hit by a train, severe weather or a security alert. If you have a single, return or weekly season ticket Journeys on (former) First Great Western services If you re delayed by more than an hour, we ll compensate you for the full value of that part of the journey. That s 50% of the cost of a return, and 100% of a single. If you re delayed by more than two hours, we ll compensate you for the full cost of your ticket. For weekly season tickets, we ll base your compensation on the value of your journey. So we ll divide the cost by 10 which represents two journeys a day for five days. Journeys on (former) First Great Western Link services We ll compensate you for 50% of the cost of your tickets if: your journey is an hour or more and we delay you by an hour or more your journey is less than an hour and we delay you by more than 30 minutes. For weekly season tickets, we ll base your compensation on the value of your journey. So we ll divide the cost by 10 which represents two journeys a day for five days. Journeys on (former) Wessex Trains services If you re delayed by more than an hour, we ll compensate you for 50% of the cost of a single ticket and 25% of a return ticket. If you re delayed by more than two hours, we ll compensate you for the full cost of your ticket. For weekly season tickets, we ll base your compensation on the value of your journey. So we ll divide the cost by 10 which represents two journeys a day for five days. If you have a combination of tickets If you have a combination of tickets for your journey, we ll compensate you for your whole journey in line with the compensation arrangements above. If some of your tickets are for trips with other train companies, we ll compensate you if we caused the delay. If we didn t, we ll ask the other train company to contact you. We ll always let you know when we ve done this. If you have season tickets for a month or longer Our compensation for customers with a season ticket for a month or longer is based on whether we meet our punctuality and reliability targets. If we don t meet them, we ll give you a discount when you renew your ticket. The table on the next page shows how this works for our different services. We explain the terms we use later on.

17 33 Charter Group On- time allowance Punctuality, reliability and the on-time allowance Punctuality % Reliability % Target Trigger Target High Speed Services* 10 minutes London-Thames Valley Services** 5 minutes Bristol Suburban Services *** 5 minutes Devon Services *** 5 minutes Plymouth & Cornwall Services*** South Wales-South Coast Services*** *Former First Great Western services **Former First Great Western Link services ***Former Wessex Trains services Punctuality concerns the number of trains that arrive at their final destination on time. The on-time allowance concerns the number of minutes leeway we have to still be classed as on time if we don t arrive exactly on schedule. Reliability concerns the number of scheduled trains that actually run. Trigger 5 minutes minutes All Monday to Saturday services are included in these calculations, except former First Great Western Link services. For those, we include Monday to Friday services. And we only include morning and evening peak services in the punctuality calculation. Peak services are the trains that arrive at London Paddington from 7am 10am and trains that leave London Paddington from 4pm 7pm. We don t include Sundays and Bank Holidays in these calculations. At the moment, we record our punctuality and reliability standards under these groups: the former First Great Western the former First Great Western Link the former Wessex Trains We also separate Wessex Trains targets into four sub-groups. The table opposite shows these groups and their standards. The trigger The trigger is the point at which we give a discount for season ticket holders. If we don t meet one of the targets, and fall below the trigger percentage in the last 12 months, we ll give our season ticket holders 5% off their next season ticket. If we miss both the punctuality and the reliability targets, and fall below both triggers, we ll give you 10% off. How to get your discount If you re entitled to a discount, we ll take it off when you renew your ticket. To get your discount, please buy your new ticket: within four weeks of the day your old ticket expires for the same journey for the same period of time or for a shorter period of time than your old ticket. Annual season tickets for former Wessex Trains If you used to buy your annual season tickets from Wessex Trains, we re more than happy to give you the same discounts. We ll give you another 1% off when you renew for every four-week period that our average yearly punctuality or reliability falls below the trigger. We ll give you a maximum of 8% off. If we fall below both triggers, we ll give you a maximum of 16% off.

18 35 If you re entitled to a discount, we ll take it off when you renew your ticket. To get your discount, please buy your new ticket: within four weeks of the day your old ticket expires for the same journey for the same period of time or for a shorter period of time than your old ticket. Compensation for void days A void day is when there s a serious disruption at peak time, and we haven t offered you another way to get to where you re going like a rail replacement bus. If we think our performance falls below an acceptable level during a peak period, we ll declare the day void for the people affected. When this happens, we ll get in touch by or post. We ll also put up posters at our stations. We ll explain what happened and the options they have for compensation either a season ticket extension or a refund based on the number of void days. And we ll let them know how they can claim it. Other losses or costs Our compensation scheme does not limit or exclude your other legal rights to compensation as a consumer, where GWR were at fault under the Consumer Rights Act If you are catching a plane, please leave plenty of time to allow for any delays to your train journey. You can ask your airline how much time you ll need to leave to check in. It s also really important to get full travel insurance. Work to improve our services Planned improvement work At the moment, we re introducing electric trains on many of our routes so we can run a faster, more efficient service. There s also lots of resignalling work going on, as well as the construction of Crossrail and the ongoing maintenance of the train network. This means many of our timetables will be changed to allow this work to go ahead. We always know about improvement work 12 weeks before it starts, and we keep our website up to date with any changes to our services. Alternatively, you can contact National Rail Enquiries for information on work across the entire rail network. We ll also put up posters at our staffed stations four weeks before and we ll make amended timetables available at stations seven days before. We ll do our best to make sure you can still travel by train for all your journeys during the work. But there will be times when we may need to take you by road instead. When this happens, we don t always have room for things like: prams and pushchairs that don t fold bikes animals (except guide dogs). If you need to travel with any of these things, please check the status of your journey before you leave home. Emergency work Work sometimes needs to be done at very short notice, so we have to run a new timetable. When this happens, we ll give you as much notice as we can through our website and at our stations. You can also follow us on for live updates, or get a text or alert. You can sign up for the alerts at

19 37 When we can give you a refund Delays and cancellations If your train is delayed or cancelled or your reservation will not be honoured and you decide not to travel, we ll give you a full immediate refund at any ticket office wherever possible. Alternatively, you can return the unused tickets to where you bought them, no later than 28 days after they expire. This also applies to advance tickets. If you choose not to travel If the trains are running with no problems and you decide not to travel, we ll give you a refund, depending on the ticket you have, but will take a 10 admin fee off. All you need to do is return the unused tickets to where you bought them, no later than 28 days after they expire. We won t refund certain tickets for example, advance tickets so it s a good idea to check the terms and conditions of your ticket before you buy it. Refunding season tickets In most cases, we can refund you if you don t use a portion of your season ticket in other words, if you return it before it expires. You can return the season ticket to where you bought it and we ll give you a refund from the date you handed it back. Our season tickets are a great deal for regular travellers because you pay a lot less per day for your journey. You also save more for a yearly season ticket than you do for a monthly one, for example. So you might find that there s only a very small amount, or nothing, to refund when you return it to us. If you use an annual season ticket for 40 weeks, there won t be any refund. That s because we don t work out the refund pro rata: we base it on the difference between the cost of the season ticket you originally bought and the cost of a season ticket for the amount of time you actually used it. If you re ill If you can t travel for more than four weeks because of illness, we might be able to refund some of your unused season ticket. Please let us know as soon as you can if you won t be able to use your ticket. You can call our Customer Support team on We may ask you for some confirmation of your illness, such as a medical certificate. If you lose your season ticket It s important that you keep your ticket safe. We can give you a duplicate, but we will charge you a 10 admin fee. If your property is damaged Anything you bring with you to our stations or on our trains is your responsibility. So if you lose it or it s stolen, we don t give any compensation. If your property is damaged, we ll only give you compensation if the damage was caused by the negligence of our staff. Accidents and injury Travelling by train is very safe, and we work hard to prevent accidents. If something does go wrong and you are hurt, please let us know as soon as possible. If it s an emergency, we ll get you the help you need. We record all the details of accidents so we can investigate what happened and make sure it doesn t happen again. Lost property If you ever leave something on the train or at the station, you can let our Lost Property team know on If we find any lost property, we send it to our lost property office at Bristol Temple Meads station. Or if we find anything at London Paddington, we keep it in the lost property office there. We store the items we find for at least 12 weeks. If we have something of yours, you can collect it, or we can post small items or arrange a courier. We do charge an admin fee in line with the National Rail Conditions of Travel, and we ll ask you to pay for postage or courier fees as well.

20 39 How to get in touch with us Whether you have a question or a complaint, want to claim compensation, give us feedback or make a suggestion, we make it as easy as we can for you to get in touch with us. Go to Start a web chat If you re travelling soon and need help straightaway, start a web chat with one of our advisers. They ll help you find train times and tickets, and book your seats seven days a week, from 7am 10pm. Fill in our online form Send us a message and we ll aim to get back to you within five working days. If you send us a complaint, we may take longer to give you a full response if we need to look into what happened. Call us on If you re travelling soon and need help straightaway, our Customer Support team will be more than happy to help you with whatever you need. They re available from 6am to 11pm every day, except Christmas Day and New Year s Day. Get in touch on social media If you re travelling soon and need help straightaway, tweet or send us a message on Facebook at We ll be on hand to help you 24 hours a day. us at GWR.feedback@GWR.com Send us a message and we ll aim to get back to you within five working days. If you send us a complaint, we may take longer to give you a full response if we need to look into what happened.

21 41 Write to us Our address is: Freepost GWR CUSTOMER SUPPORT Once our Customer Support team has your letter, they ll aim to get back to you within five working days. If they need more time to investigate a complaint or check information, they ll let you know within five working days. They ll then write with a full response within 20 working days. Sometimes letters get lost in the post. We work with Royal Mail to try and stop this, but we can t always prevent it. If you re worried about your letter getting lost, the best way to get in touch with us is by , online or over the phone. Comments about other train companies If any of your comments are linked to another train company, we ll send them on and ask them to contact you. Our customer panels We re always keen to hear from our customers if they have any suggestions for how we can do better. In fact, we have two regional customer panels to help us do this. The panels meet every six months with members of our Senior Management team. So, if you d like to help us make changes, you can volunteer to be on the panels. If you re interested, go to for more details on what s involved and how to join. Our advisory board Our advisory board is made up of stakeholders and customers who meet at least five times a year with directors and senior managers. Together, they look at how we re doing and discuss changes for the future. The board, and our customer panels, help us decide what we do with our Customer and Communities Improvement Fund. This fund helps us transform our customer service where there is real social need and where normal business criteria make it harder to invest. Meet the manager We hold regular sessions where you can talk to our senior managers and directors about our service. You can find out when the next sessions are at Railway Ombudsman Please give us the opportunity to try to resolve your complaint. If you re unhappy with the response you receive, you have the right to appeal to the Rail Ombudsman. The Rail Ombudsman is there to help resolve on going disputes between us and our passengers. It s free to use their services and they are independent of the rail industry. They don t take sides, but just look at the evidence available. They will help us both to try to reach an agreement, but if this doesn t happen, they will make a decision based on the evidence they ve received. If you agree with their decision, then we have to act on what they say. You can appeal to the Rail Ombudsman if: you re unhappy with our final response to your complaint which will be contained in a letter or (sometimes called a deadlock letter ); or we haven t resolved your complaint within 40 working days of receiving it; and no more than 12 months have passed since we sent you our final response.

22 43 Greenford Hayes & Harlington West Ealing Ealing Broadway Acton Main Line London Paddington Redhill Gatwick Airport Dorking (Deepdene) Reigate Banbury Oxford Brighton STAN GWR - SEPT 2015 Worcester Shrub Hill Hereford Marlow Henley-on-Thames Gloucester Worcester Foregate Street Didcot Parkway Swindon Yate Bristol Parkway Port Talbot Parkway Reading Carmarthen Slough Maidenhead Twyford Chippenham Newport Bridgend Bath Spa Swansea South Greenford Windsor & Eton Central Castle Bar Park Drayton Green West Drayton Iver Southall Hanwell Bourne End Cookham Shiplake Langley Burnham Wargrave Furze Platt Taplow Winnersh Wokingham Crowthorne Newbury Melksham Sandhurst Blackwater Bradford-on-Avon Farnborough North Pewsey Trowbridge Pembroke Dock Weston-super-Mare Westbury North Camp Ash Basingstoke Frome Shalford Chilworth Dorking West Highbridge & Burnham Barnstaple Chapelton Wanborough Gomshall Betchworth Ascott-under-Wychwood Finstock Moreton-in-Marsh Kingham Pershore Evesham Honeybourne Malvern Link Great Malvern Ledbury Hanborough Combe Charlbury Shipton Colwall Ashchurch for Tewkesbury Radley Cheltenham Spa Culham Cholsey Goring & Streatley Pangbourne Tilehurst Stonehouse Appleford Cam & Dursley Kemble Stroud Patchway Severn Tunnel Junction Pilning Ferryside Reading West Montpelier Theale Aldermaston Midgham Stapleton Road Keynsham Lawrence Hill Redland Sea Mills Shirehampton Thatcham Mortimer Newbury Racecourse Freshford Oldfield Park Avonmouth Bristol Temple Meads St Andrews Road Avoncliff Bedminster Parson Street Severn Beach Kintbury Nailsea & Backwell Hungerford Bramley Yatton Bedwyn Worle Weston Milton Dilton Marsh Bruton Guildford Castle Cary Warminster Bridgwater Umberleigh Portsmouth Arms Kings Nympton Eggesford Worthing Hove Shorehamby-Sea There are some complaints that the Rail Ombudsman won t be able to look into, for example if it s about the way one of our services has been designed, industry policy, or if your complaint relates to an event which took place before the Rail Ombudsman service was established. If that s the case, then they ll contact you to let you know. If possible, they will transfer your complaint to another organisation that may be able to help you further, such as Transport Focus or London TravelWatch the independent consumer watchdogs for the rail industry. They will independently review your complaint and where appropriate, follow things up on your behalf. Rail Ombudsman contact details: Website: (including online chat): Telephone: Textphone: Twitter: Post: FREEPOST RAIL OMBUDSMAN The Ombudsman Contact Centre team are available: Monday to Friday 08:00-20:00 Saturday and Bank Holidays 08:00-13:00 (excluding Christmas Day) Kings Sutton Heyford Tackley Cardiff Central Kidwelly Pembrey & Burry Port Llanelli Neath Whitland Filton Abbey Wood Clifton Down Narberth Kilgetty Saundersfoot Tenby Penally Manorbier Lamphey Pembroke First Great Western summer only service Lapford Morchard Road Copplestone Newquay Yeoford Salisbury Taunton Crediton Gunnislake Quintrell Downs Tiverton Parkway Newton St Cyres Exeter St Davids St Columb Road St Ives Calstock Roche Barnham Havant Cosham Yeovil Pen Mill Romsey Exeter Central Exeter St Thomas Starcross Dawlish Warren Bugle Bere Alston Carbis Bay Luxulyan Chichester Fareham Southampton Central St James Park Dawlish Fratton Digby & Sowton Teignmouth Newton Abbot St Budeaux Victoria Road Bere Ferrers Totnes Ivybridge St Germans Menheniot Lostwithiel Bodmin Parkway Liskeard Lelant Lelant Saltings Thornford Polsloe Bridge Par Truro Hayle Camborne Redruth Portsmouth & Southsea Yetminster Chetnole St Erth Newcourt Topsham Torre Maiden Newton Portsmouth Harbour Dorchester West Torquay Plymouth Devonport Dockyard Keyham St Austell Exton St Budeaux Ferry Road Saltash Coombe Junction Halt Penzance Lympstone Commando Perranwell Upwey Lympstone Village St Keyne Wishing Well Halt Penryn Exmouth Weymouth Paignton Causeland Penmere Sandplace Looe Falmouth Town Falmouth Docks

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