No toilets on VTEC service

[Mordac]

I thought the toilets on a mk4 set just empty on the tracks when full?

That's a mk.3

 

[fergusjbend]

Surely VTEC must be in breach of disability discrimination laws? A significant number of passengers will require access to toilets for medical reasons.

 

[najaB]

Surely VTEC must be in breach of disability discrimination laws?

Only if they are deliberately breaking the disabled loo. The DDA only requires that companies make reasonable provision for persons with disability. Requiring a TOC to cancel a train because the disabled loo is out of order wouldn't be considered reasonable.

 

[SPADTrap]

That's a mk.3

No. Mk3s just flush onto the tracks altogether.

 

[Tracked]

First TPE had a spell of this last year, I wasn't a regular traveller on their trains at that time but there was a few months where every time I caught one of them there'd be at least one toilet on the 185 out of use.

Haven't noticed it recently, it's just the Cleethorpes train always being late into Sheffield now! :roll:

 

[jon0844]

I thought the toilets on a mk4 set just empty on the tracks when full?

And they appear to be doing it a lot more of late. It was a problem under GNER and EC too, but now I seem to experience what appears to be about 50% of the Mk4s coming around the curve south of Hatfield spraying from at least one toilet, which in turn covers everyone on platform 1.

Staff are of course aware of the issue, but many passengers make no attempt to hide their faces (and mouths) and goodness knows how much has sprayed over the Chuggs kiosk there!

Has there been a reduction in the emptying of the retention tanks or am I just extremely unlucky?

What's going to happen when they get the 800s? They'll lock the toilets out of use won't they? So no chance to let tanks overflow and spray people. They better schedule more emptying or the problem is going to get a lot worse.

 

[TheBerry]

It was the up Chieftain at Edinburgh, I was en route to York, so yes, in the midst of a very long journey.

TheBerry - I know what you mean about this sort of thing getting publicised more, but direct experience says that this is more than just a social media/Journey Check thing. I've covered a huge distance on the East Coast over the past ten years or so and there's been a marked deterioration in the WCs since Virgin took over. I initially put this down to the clapped out sets they inherited, but for a newly refurbed HST to be struggling does seem odd. I also had a nasty experience in an unrefurbed mk4 the other day - and a long way from the WC itself - with a toilet pong enough to make a Voyager blush, never in my life have I experienced that before. The lav itself was a disgrace through lack of maintenance rather than cleaning.

Do they just need to take on a couple of extra plumbers for goodness sake, it does feel like corners are being cut here, how difficult is to make a toilet flush properly? Do they do anything with the WCs when they refurb? If they don't then they need to.

It's a shame because I don't have a major gripe with VTEC generally, and train toilets don't register with me one way or the other normally.

Things have been far better in recent years than they have in the past. I would say since Virgin took over the situation has improved, particularly because of the refurb. I appreciate you might be having a different experience.

The mechanism for flushing a HST toilet isn't amazing, from my limited knowledge. I assume all HST's have it so East Coast won't be alone with that problem. There's a very large number of people who dispose of paper towels in the toilet. They don't flush as well as the toilet paper for whatever reason, it eventually snowballs and the toilet is filled with too much paper to flush away. It's then locked out of use, it will normally be dealt with at the terminating station.

The refurb is tackling toilets to put them into presentable & working order. MK4 sets all have new sinks to stop water running onto the floor.

All sets have suffered from a general lack of maintenance through the years, hence why they're all being refurbished.

 

[ryan125hst]

And they appear to be doing it a lot more of late. It was a problem under GNER and EC too, but now I seem to experience what appears to be about 50% of the Mk4s coming around the curve south of Hatfield spraying from at least one toilet, which in turn covers everyone on platform 1.

Staff are of course aware of the issue, but many passengers make no attempt to hide their faces (and mouths) and goodness knows how much has sprayed over the Chuggs kiosk there!

That's disgusting! How can they get away with this happening all the time, particularly when there's a kiosk selling food on the platform?! I'd imagine the HST's are better in this respect as they're designed to dump waste on the track. With the 225's it's more of an overflow so will probably be coming from higher up, making it more likely that passengers will be sprayed.

Has anybody actually complained to VTEC about the issue rather than a Tweet re an individual train and received a reply ?

I tweeted to them when I noticed it saying there were no toilets in standard class on journey check. Their reply was "All of them?" to which I didn't receive further replies once I told them I wasn't on that train. Either it was a mistake on the journey check post or the Twitter team weren't informed.

 

[DarloRich]

That's disgusting! How can they get away with this happening all the time, particularly when there's a kiosk selling food on the platform?! I'd imagine the HST's are better in this respect as they're designed to dump waste on the track. With the 225's it's more of an overflow so will probably be coming from higher up, making it more likely that passengers will be sprayed.


I tweeted to them when I noticed it saying there were no toilets in standard class on journey check. Their reply was "All of them?" to which I didn't receive further replies once I told them I wasn't on that train. Either it was a mistake on the journey check post or the Twitter team weren't informed.

i guess you haven't worked on the track very often - even with my limited knowledge you learn to avoid the brown cloud!

 

[ryan125hst]

i guess you haven't worked on the track very often - even with my limited knowledge you learn to avoid the brown cloud!

I haven't worked on the track as I'm just an enthusiast, but I have heard of that before. I guess they have learnt not to trust the 225's now either despite them being fitted with tanks!

 

[DarloRich]

I haven't worked on the track as I'm just an enthusiast, but I have heard of that before. I guess they have learnt not to trust the 225's now either despite them being fitted with tanks!

trust no one!

 

[jon0844]

I got a story in the papers about the problem back in the NatEx days and it was said they intended to increase the tank emptying, which they possibly did for a while. Now it's definitely back to that and probably far worse.

It is indeed worse with the Mk4s as the liquid sprays out from high up, not underneath.

FCC at the time was quick to say it didn't have any stock that would do that, and there were comments from rail workers/unions - although the story was more about the fact the general public were getting covered, not staff.

I know to look and hide my face, but others are just willing to let themselves get covered.

I remember when I was first told it was fresh water overflowing, except those tanks aren't being filled as the train travels! And water doesn't smell like sewage.

 

[Starmill]

I know to look and hide my face, but others are just willing to let themselves get covered.

Are you sure its not just that they don't believe that it's actually happening?

 

[jon0844]

Are you sure its not just that they don't believe that it's actually happening?

I didn't mean quite what I wrote. More that they're blissfully unaware.