RailUK Forums
Reviews and Complaints

This certainly has the potential be a good forum.

However, the moderation is very heavy handed. Don't dare consider taking a thread even remotely off topic. Ensure the arcane rules about quoting, linking to external sources and including pictures are followed to the letter or be prepared to be put on the naughty step - this is something one moderator in particular enjoys.

The site also has an affiliation to a rail ticketing site which whilst saving you money then adds a compulsory 10% levy on tickets sold. Not only is this unnecessary as identical tickets can (and should) be bought from other sites with no booking fee/levy, any advice offered by moderators should not be treated as impartial.

Whilst the site is heavily used, it is heavily used by a growing number of experts who like to assert their dominance and this can make newcommers and infrequent posters feel very intimidated and out of place.

The moderators have a tough job with thousands of posts per day, but they and one in particular (Mike Wooldridge/“Yorkie”) need to lean some general politeness and manners, they also need to set out (and ideally simplify) their rules), posters are regularly told that they are in breach of rule #46 for example, despite there being no numbered list of rules and many seem to be made up very ad hoc.

Overhaul, if you're part of the Yorkie's clique, you'll get on fine, if you're not you're in for a rough ride. Oh and don't dare disagree with him on fares, transport policy, politics, covid restrictions or anything else!

A certain member YORKIE is a very cruel admin, makes up stories and hands out false information. Deletes all posts he disagrees with, goes to town with anyone he thinks he can bully from his keyboard, clean has a beef with railway staff and is out get them online. Gives out many inaccurate comments relating to tickets, services and staff. Clearly clearly doesn't understand what he's posting about and will take no criticism so will delete posts and ban members. It's no surprise all reviews are negative about him and therefore the forum.
Find a good welcome forum that likes debate and allows members to come together.

This can be a good forum. It is very well structured and covers everything about different aspects of the railway, including trains, infrastructure, ticketing etc. It also has a section dedicated to buses & coaches, as well as a general discussion section. I do enjoy reading all public transport infrastructure projects, people's travels and different opinions and asking advice about ticket validity, restrictions etc.

And yet, a certain administrator who I'd rather not name (but apparently created the site) always likes to bully me claiming that my posts don't comply with their rules even when they do so. Not to mention I find some rules completely ridiculous as well! Not only that but this same administrator also accuses me of things that are completely untrue just because it doesn't suit the administrator's preferences and threatens me all the time to put my account on moderation for doing nothing wrong. For example, just a slight error or mistake, and this administrator will immediately have a hard time with me just because I apparently breached forum rules. The same administrator warned of my account going on moderation only because I had posted too much on a forum I was very interested in contributing (what is the point of a forum if you don't want people to contribute! That's basically trying to turn the forum into a dictatorship, where anything that doesn't suit the administrator will be punished!

Indeed, I was put on moderation by this admin in question once in 2020 and then again now. What happened was that I created a thread by sharing an article in relation to railway ticketing issues. That caused my account to go on moderation once again (this was in April 2023) because according to this grumpy administrator, I didn't put a comment to promote discussion (even though there was nothing that was to be said!). The second time my account went onto moderation, I just had to leave!

Luckily not all of the moderators and admins are that bad and some of them are lovely people. But it's a shame this particular administrator has to completely ruin the great experience this could potentially be!

So yeah, join the forum at your own risk.