Southern Anmeldelser 

Despite two trains still scheduled towards the end of an evening, both were cancelled with no notice, the station signage claiming 'urgent track repairs' needed. No staff on site; no indication of any alternative travel. Had to pay £35 for a taxi to my destination station.

My subsequent complaint / claim to be refunded my taxi fare was met with. chronologically:

1. A helpful customer service agent
2. A seemingly automated claim denial stating that as my delay was less than 15 minutes in length, I wouldn't be refunded anything (*my delay lasted the entire rest of the evening going into the next morning!*)
3. (After further communication from me) a claim denial from a customer service agent stating that a replacement bus service was available (*it wasn't*).
4. (After further communication from me) nothing.

Incompetent / uncaring / downright liars? You decide!

Absolutely dreadful service. Had to stand all the way on a train down from London Victoria after operation on leg and then when I finally sat down in a first class seat, because there was no other seats available. Officious guard comes along and wants me to upgrade my ticket to first class or get a fine. No compassion to the situation. Not just me He went round charging everyone else when no seating was available. Almost seem to be reveling in it and waiting fo us to sit down. Appaling behaviour.

Rubbish communication with multiple delays across 3 train services. Very poor customer service with staff member laughing that he had no information despite vulnerable people who needed support. First train delayed for 15 minutes then cancelled due to technical fault, today at 6/3/25. Switched to another train which just arrived. Same fault apparently! No information. Staff unable to support vulnerable customers with getting home at 10pm at night. Shameful service.
Both trains departed platforms shortly afterwards with cancelled service. Moved to 3rd attempt to get home at train 40mins plus after original departure and this left 3 minutes late. Staff had no information, rude, offhand and unhelpful. Appalling. Can’t even apply for claim for train fare as you are required to provide receipts even if using oyster pay as you go so needs to be done at later stage. Surely this company needs to be removed and new ownership to run competent sefvice.

Why has my rail fare jumped up twice over the last two months yet the service is unreliable we are clearly paying to the ' delay repay' it's ridiculous especially when you are trying to live on a restricted income. Maybe our rail company needs to actually spend more money doing a decent repair first time instead of seeming to be always doing work on the weekend supplying a lousy bus replacement and then forcing everyone to then have to spend time gets partial refunds when trains are late. Really sick and tired of our countrys public transport systems!

Train cancelled. Put on local bus, not rail replacement bus, to another town that doesn’t even go to the railway station. Abandoned near bus station and had to walk. At least I didn’t have luggage! £10 for four stop return ticket and didn’t get the return!

They maintain that booking tickets from them is the cheapest method…NOT SO. Trainline is much cheaper.

My ticket from Herne Hill to Lewes at least 20% cheaper on Trainline….complete rip off by Southern Rail. No wonder they have almost 90% bad reviews !

I’ll always use Trainline in future.

Just been sitting on a southen train on platform 15 Victoria - it was cancelled which is sort of ok - what’s not is you can’t even be bothered to make an announcement just leaving people to sit there !!! RUBBISH SERVICE

National embarrassment of a company, shocking service, complete lack of customer care and support. Charge customers an obscene amount of money and invest none of it into it's own terrible infrastructure.

I hope the person from Southern reading this is embarrassed as you willing work for scum that makes everyone poorer.

For the latest travel information... Why do I need to go online to know where the train is going? Why not just tell us on the train we are sitting on...

The notification display continually looping the same useless information is silly.

A HUGE thank you to Debbie, Shaun, Colum,
Matthew and all the Southern Railway staff
today. We accidentally mislaid a very
sentimental item on our train from Hamstreet
to Brighton, via Hampden Park. TedRex was found and kept safely all day before a successful collection at Eastbourne! Once again, ALL of you have been wonderful, and we cannot thank you enough. You've turned my birthday from a stressful day to a very happy and relieved day.

Not even one day without some train cancellations or delays from this so called Southern Railway
Absolutely ridiculous service from them
I am pretty sure no one reads or cares about any of this reviews

We were pensioners with heavy bags travelling from Imperial Wharf to Birmingham on the 28th December. Gordon was on duty at Imperial Wharf and if there is an award for exemplary customer service, give it to him now, Southern Railways. He arranged for ongoing services to be ready to make our connections. He carried and loaded our luggage and kept us informed of arrival and estimated connection times. Friendly, courteous, knowledgeable, willing to go the extra mile. Everything you could want in customer service. THANK YOU GORDON, 5 STARS.

My experience was amazing! Every time I go to Guildford via this train company they always make me feel comfortable and welcome, one conductor even lent me his portable charger ☺️ The staff are very friendly and always happy to help, definitely choose southern instead of southeastern :)

Steve & Rob from Carshalton station are amazing and went the extra mile tracking down when I lost my bag with Christmas presents in! Thank you

All trains cancelled from my station so 49 minute drive to three bridges. Services reduced to 1 per hour so trains both ways jammed and standing like sardines both ways. Chaos on the Victoria platforms due to dangerous over crowding. Extortionate fares due to striking overpaid and quite frankly lazy staff. When the yobs are in your carnage it's as if that conductor specially there for our safety becomes invisible. I guess this is what a monopoly looks like.

Southern is one of my local train operators which I use regularly, I find there train operations so poor, there trains are regularly cancelled or delayed & packed to the brim, because of short formations & because they charge extortionate prices on their sister company - Gatwick Express to Gatwick Airport which doesn’t really make a time difference or sometimes take longer then Southern Services from London. Their Toilets, Seats & Tables are also disgusting or damaged if your lucky to get a seat. On Sunday there timetable early morning is cr*p two trains an hour from Sussex to London which stops at most stations instead of fast operations & all using the slow lines & again short formation trains. Prices can be extortionate on here to Avoid if you can. Don’t ask about the wifi it usually doesn’t work, charging points are available on some trains but sometimes don’t work

National rail or national trash. I would use trash as it's more accurate. Trains are delayed because the drivers are delayed by the delay. Imagine the joke ....

Bought an advance ticket via the Southern Website from the Westcountry to London. Due to adverse weather, I needed to move it by a week. I know the ticket was not refundable (why can't I buy a refundable ticket!?) - but it just said to call to amend it.

Called to amend, they THEN tell me I have to go to a ticket office to get one. Pain, but ok. My nearest one is 35 miles away. NO, NOT THOSE ONES...it has to be a SOUTHERN ticket office. Nearest one is 150 miles away. So unless I send my 84 year old mother to a station in London, which is impossible, I have been Scammed out of my ticket money. BUYER BEWARE. Compaint lodged...but judging by the apathy they have to trustpilot, I'd just save yourself the hassle and NEVER BUY TICKETS DIRECT FROM SOTUHERN TRAINS. They robbed me of an already extortionate fare at Christmas. Angry doesn't even cover it.

UPDATE: I'm glad I couldn't refund it now. I should have realised they couldn't run a bath, let alone a train network successfully...my outbound journey got cancelled after a late connection as well, 212 minutes late and counting.

So - make sure you use DELAY REPAY when they wanna keep your money. Check realtimetrains for lateness...then take that cash back, with profit too, if you're a season ticket holder. I'm about to get my refund, via the back door failings of their operations :)

ANOTHER EDIT: Upped it one star as the complaint was dealt with via a phone call within a few days. But only a credit and I alrready bought my next tickets. Gone up a bit in my estimations. Too late - but I'll take it.

So disgusting! Always delayed!

Charles was agreat help at assisting us at Waterloo east, a credit to your company.