• Our booking engine at tickets.railforums.co.uk (powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase! Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread!

Important stations with no toilets

Status
Not open for further replies.

Old Yard Dog

Established Member
Joined
21 Aug 2011
Messages
1,466
Which important NR stations don't have any toilets?

High on my list would be Smethwick Galton Bridge which is an important interchange station with frequent services in all four directions.

Travelling home from the little used Bordesley station yesterday after the Coventry - Blackpool game, I stopped off at Jewellery Quarter to visit a couple of home brew pubs with very limited FSO opening hours. But afterwards the toilet on the 1856 Jewellery Quarter - Smethwick Galton Bridge was out of order, there were no toilets at SGB, and both toilets on the 1910 SGB to Crewe were out of order. So I had to dive out in agony at Wolverhampton. For the first time in 60 years, I had to get off a train short of my destination to find a bog!

Which other key stations lack this very basic facility?

And how can LNWR get away with sending a train on a 4-hour journey from Euston to Liverpool without a working toilet?
 
Sponsor Post - registered members do not see these adverts; click here to register, or click here to log in
R

RailUK Forums

thejuggler

Member
Joined
8 Jan 2016
Messages
1,186
Bradford Forster Square which in 2019 is a scandal. Even Bradford Interchange toilets are in the bus station.
 

yorksrob

Veteran Member
Joined
6 Aug 2009
Messages
38,818
Location
Yorks
A lot of staffed suburban stations on the South Western suburban network don't have a toilet - particularly bad as neither do the 455's that serve them.
 

syorksdeano

Member
Joined
7 Jan 2011
Messages
725
Bradford Forster Square which in 2019 is a scandal. Even Bradford Interchange toilets are in the bus station.
But Forster Square does have a disabled toilet, that's if you are allowed to still access it.

I think the reason why no toilets were provided is that the council at the time had one of those superloos right outside the station on the retail park bit
 

SteveM70

Established Member
Joined
11 Jul 2018
Messages
3,800
Slightly away from the OP’s point, but the toilets at Preston are closed at the moment, and Virgin have provided three portaloos just outside the station entrance instead. Three individual toilets. For a busy interchange station. And this evening two of them were unusable and constituted a health risk. I mentioned this to the on duty supervisor and literally got a shrug and a “sorry nothing to do with me”
 

61653 HTAFC

Veteran Member
Joined
18 Dec 2012
Messages
17,623
Location
Another planet...
Bradford Forster Square which in 2019 is a scandal. Even Bradford Interchange toilets are in the bus station.
BDI toilets are in the undercroft, as far removed from the bus station as they are from the railway station. St Pancras International's toilets are a longer walk from the platforms than Bradford Interchange's are.
 

Taunton

Established Member
Joined
1 Aug 2013
Messages
10,018
That’s impressive, aren’t the Weymouth ones inside the station building opposite the ticket office?
I was quite surprised, going through Weymouth several times this summer, to find this state of affairs. It's not as if it's some inner-city dive! Yes the doors do face the ticket office but that is closed for pretty much half the operating hours; it's an unstaffed halt after 6pm, just as everyone starts to go home from the beach, and you have to enter round the side. BT Police were regularly there as well, also unexpected; they are about the only police you will see around on a visit to the town.
 

scrapy

Established Member
Joined
15 Dec 2008
Messages
2,081
Salford Crescent is similar to the OPs example Smethwick Galton Bridge in that it is a busy interchange with regular services in 4 directions (albeit from 2 platforms) but no toilets.
 

PeterC

Established Member
Joined
29 Sep 2014
Messages
4,066
Two that are, as far as I recall, TfL operated but with significant NR services are Farringdon and Stratford. Stratford at least has Westfield near(ish) the NR platforms but if you are using PAYG it means paying two fares.
 

[.n]

Member
Joined
8 Apr 2016
Messages
706
I was quite surprised, going through Weymouth several times this summer, to find this state of affairs. It's not as if it's some inner-city dive! Yes the doors do face the ticket office but that is closed for pretty much half the operating hours; it's an unstaffed halt after 6pm, just as everyone starts to go home from the beach, and you have to enter round the side. BT Police were regularly there as well, also unexpected; they are about the only police you will see around on a visit to the town.

It's not unstaffed (as a station), the ticket office is, but there are still staff available until the station closes

At a recent meeting I attended, an SWR manager was tackled about this state of affairs (the toilets), and apparently the best suggestion is to simply use the ones on the train. Given the state of the average SWR/GWR onboard toilet, and the fact they are often out of order as well, people in the meeting weren't convinced.

Of course, what amazes/saddens me is how people manage to get public toilets into such a horrendous state in the first place - a complete lack of disrespect
 

[.n]

Member
Joined
8 Apr 2016
Messages
706
I would say Clapham Junction, one set of toilets, on the footbridge at the platform 17(?) end. If memory serves me correctly the gents only has one toilet and 3 urinals. Completely inadequate for a station that is this busy, and very very hidden away. I only found them one day, when I had nearly an hour wait for my train, and was thinking it would be simpler to take a train to Victoria/Waterloo, use the facilities there, and there catch a train back!
 

Ianno87

Veteran Member
Joined
3 May 2015
Messages
15,215
Salford Crescent is similar to the OPs example Smethwick Galton Bridge in that it is a busy interchange with regular services in 4 directions (albeit from 2 platforms) but no toilets.

There in a disabled loo in the new ticket office, by the entrance/exit.
 

TheEdge

Established Member
Joined
29 Nov 2012
Messages
4,489
Location
Norwich
Two that are, as far as I recall, TfL operated but with significant NR services are Farringdon and Stratford. Stratford at least has Westfield near(ish) the NR platforms but if you are using PAYG it means paying two fares.

Stratford does have some, they are behind the lift and escalators on the Great Eastern Road side. However they are absolutely tiny, well hidden and hugely inadequate for the size of the station
 

High Dyke

Established Member
Joined
1 Jan 2013
Messages
4,267
Location
Yellabelly Country
Slightly away from the OP’s point, but the toilets at Preston are closed at the moment, and Virgin have provided three portaloos just outside the station entrance instead. Three individual toilets. For a busy interchange station. And this evening two of them were unusable and constituted a health risk. I mentioned this to the on duty supervisor and literally got a shrug and a “sorry nothing to do with me”
Yes, slightly off the OP, but I found that out the other week...The sign on the door directed you to the nearby shopping centre. It seems odd that those toilets are the only facilities on a station the size of Preston.
 

Edders23

Member
Joined
22 Sep 2018
Messages
549
I suppose it is inevitable local authorities are shutting toilets up and down the country especially in lincolnshire to save money! No doubt it's the same since the provision of toilets is a courtesy and not a requirement in law
 

Goldfish62

Established Member
Joined
14 Feb 2010
Messages
9,934
I would say Clapham Junction, one set of toilets, on the footbridge at the platform 17(?) end. If memory serves me correctly the gents only has one toilet and 3 urinals. Completely inadequate for a station that is this busy, and very very hidden away. I only found them one day, when I had nearly an hour wait for my train, and was thinking it would be simpler to take a train to Victoria/Waterloo, use the facilities there, and there catch a train back!
Two traps and two urinals. But yes, completely inadequate and large queues often form.
 

PeterC

Established Member
Joined
29 Sep 2014
Messages
4,066
Stratford does have some, they are behind the lift and escalators on the Great Eastern Road side. However they are absolutely tiny, well hidden and hugely inadequate for the size of the station
Reopened? I knew that they were built but had been closed. I haven't used Stratford for a while but last year was forced to trek the width of the station and through Westfield as there were no toilets available within the station.
 

superjohn

Member
Joined
11 Mar 2011
Messages
531
The toilets at Stratford are frequently closed due to vandalism and/or flooding. When open they can be pretty grim at times, better to use Westfield or the old shopping centre if at all possible.
 

mattyb1405

Member
Joined
18 Jun 2012
Messages
45
We visited Llandudno on the train last Friday. I hadn't checked, so my own fault, but was surprised how early that station had closed for the evening and with it the toilets as well. Probably was naive expecting it to be open. Appreciate the thread title also and that this station had toilets but it did seem busy enough that I was expecting them to be open?
 

Muenchener

Member
Joined
31 May 2018
Messages
142
Yes, slightly off the OP, but I found that out the other week...The sign on the door directed you to the nearby shopping centre. It seems odd that those toilets are the only facilities on a station the size of Preston.
Slightly disingenuous in that most people probably don't realise that the toilets in the Fishergate shopping centre themselves get locked shortly after 18:00 when the centre is secured.
 

NewClee153

Member
Joined
13 Aug 2018
Messages
138
Smethwick Galton Bridge does have a toilet, I should know as it's my local and I use the station everyday. It’s a disabled toilet, next to the ticket office, though it is locked, and you have to ask the station attendant for the key
 

route101

Established Member
Joined
16 May 2010
Messages
10,594
Slightly away from the OP’s point, but the toilets at Preston are closed at the moment, and Virgin have provided three portaloos just outside the station entrance instead. Three individual toilets. For a busy interchange station. And this evening two of them were unusable and constituted a health risk. I mentioned this to the on duty supervisor and literally got a shrug and a “sorry nothing to do with me”

Were open last Wednesday
 

Rhydgaled

Established Member
Joined
25 Nov 2010
Messages
4,568
Whitland. Ok, probably not 'important' to many but as it's a junction there's potential for interchange. No waiting room either, just a canopy on one side and an open 'shelter' on the other, neither of which provide any shelter from the howling gales that blow through (ok, maybe not quite 'howling gales' but it does seem to be a rather windy spot). With a wait of potentially half an hour (longer and you might be able to travel to Carmarthen and back to change there instead, although your ticket probably wouldn't be valid for that) the current 'almost nothing' is not really good enough.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Top