The ones at Liverpool Street leave a lot to be desired especially the hand washing facility, sink filthy & dryers seem to not work, but they have variety of wildlife chirping over the PA to cheers us all up
I visited the Liverpool Street toilets for the first time on Wednesday and apart from the hand driers hidden behind mirrors to be beyond useless, the worst thing about them was finding them on the concourse, but there were no issues with cleanliness.
The Euston toilets may be the worst I have ever had the misfortune to encounter, not only on the railway but anywhere I have ever been. I only made the mistake of using them a couple of times and will not be doing so again, as besides having to wade through at least an inch of “water” to get to them (which we all know wasn’t water) I did not feel safe for a second that I was in there, on top of the general disgust at the sheer level of filth which Network Rail has failed to do anything about and this is not a feeling I have experienced elsewhere when using public toilets. I would be concerned about catching an infectious disease and consider burning my clothes after merely setting foot in there, if not harassed by another individual using them.
This could not be in greater contrast to the standard of facilities at Kings Cross which during my last visit I noticed had been upgraded from Platinum Standard to Platinum Plus. As good as it is that the Kings Cross toilets can win awards for being among the best maintained in the country, I don’t understand why it is that Network Rail is able to concentrate all of its resources on Kings Cross and leaving Euston in what is a frankly dangerous state, although the toilet provision does some up the usability of all other facilities at both stations.
Having used station toilets at Manchester Piccadilly, Manchester Victoria, Stockport, Wilmslow, Stoke, Edinburgh, Durham, Leeds and Euston in the past few months I can't say I've found the Euston ones to be below par compared to others. I'd actually say Manchester Piccadilly's are on a par with Euston's, Stockport's are on a par with Stoke's. Edinburgh, Durham and Leeds are probably the best, with Wilmslow being the worst.
The Piccadilly toilets are nowhere near as bad as the ones at Euston. They have none of the issues I have described. The main issue I find at Piccadilly is they are always too busy with a lengthy queue to use them. The ones at Liverpool Lime Street aren’t much better for this but there at least sometimes you can use them straight away, unlike at Piccadilly.
Liverpool Central and Moorfields should be gleaming soon, given they have been shut both at the same time since January (inconvenient to have both stations out, particularly of a weekend).
I don’t know in what universe Merseyrail were allowed to close the toilets at both Liverpool Central and Moorfields
at the same time. With no toilet facilities at James Street and many signs stating this, this leaves the only station in the city centre with open toilet facilities as Lime Street, where they are already overcrowded.
I don’t have much hope for the refurbishment though, because like at Southport, they weren’t exactly the best but there was nothing wrong with them before, they were refurbished less than 12 months ago after the works overran quite considerably and within several months they were noticeably in a much worse state than before they refurbished them.
Surprisingly, among the best station toilets I have ever used are those at Wigan Wallgate, which are always superbly clean every time I visit, despite the level of abuse they must get from passengers there, being worse than is experienced at Southport, but the materials used by Northern must be much more durable. At other Northern managed stations such as Manchester Victoria, Oxford Road and Bolton the toilets are I have to say unremarkable, but the ones at Wigan Wallgate definitely stand out as being well maintained.
A dishonourable mention goes to Stourbridge Junction, where the platform toilets have been closed for “refurbishment” since 5 March and still not reopened, which was no use to me when I found myself there needing to use them.
www.merseyrail.org
