How many station toilets would be open late at night? I know the Calder Valley line and there are toilets at Rochdale, Hebden Bridge and Halifax - if coming from Blackpool, then Preston, Blackburn, Accrington and Burnley Manc Road, but some/most of these would be locked when the ticket office closes.
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No working toilet on the train.
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D6130
Established Member
Yes, that's correct.....with the exception of Preston.
The age when the best you could expect was a urinal in a roofless gent's. Women couldn't stray far from their homes because of the lack of public conveniences.Remind me how sanitary the Victorian times were.
Still, at least you did get a urinal. The way this country is losing public toilets men will be found behind every tree, and women (especially those of a certain age) will find themselves restricted in where they can go.
How about the 1950s when many more stations had loos? One example I can think of is Christ Church Hospital.Remind me how sanitary the Victorian times were.
On Saturday night I got the 23:36 Sidcup to London Waterloo East.
On the departure board it said there were no toilets so is the 23:36 usually formed of rolling stock with loos? This was clearly rolling stock without loos.
Before departing Sidcup I just used the disabled loo as I have a key.
It’s not a secret that SE’s 376s and the recently built 707s lack toilets. It’s announced so as to make people aware, as you experienced.
weastebusdepot
Member
That exact scenario did happen on one line yesterday. Two units providing an hourly service. Then one taken out of service due to a broken toilet, and an engineering possession further up the line meaning a replacement unit couldn't be sent. So a train every two hours, and on the hours in between replacement road transport provided by two coaches that didn't have toilets either. Fitters got the toilet working just in time to run the final service of the day.
Obvisouly depends on the routes, for me, WCML is fine as we use Nuneaton and Rugby as priority toilet stops and then Tamworth if available.
We have South Parkway and Rugby for the Liverpool route and Stoke on the Potteries. Wolves is good for services at the New St end, Stafford would be only in dire circumstances due to facilities only on platform 1. So there are many available that are well spread.
When I was on the Snow Hill lines, there are none available that I can think of after about 6pm so you're hoping to have a double set after dark to avoid the situation of needing to find facilities.
Well if that is the case, why do SWR not announce such a thing for the 0:16 and 0:40 London Waterloo to Guuldford services on their departure boards. Perhaps someone just hasn't thought of the idea, unlike someone working for Southeastern.
It's no secret those are fast services SWR run using 455 class coaching stock but people would be caught unaware as if they didn't seek out this information, they wouldn't expect it to be the case.
Travelmonkey
Member
I've had a few instances recently where a train toilet has been a godsend although one of them I did have to run from a put of order loo (that had been vandalised & locked out) on a 323 onto the connecting unit, luckily it was double unit or I'd have been screwed, it does seem some trains are tricky I know when EMR had the 156 units on the North Staffs line the doors would play up but the guards I encountered knew how to fix them. I do think a lack of loos both on trains and at stations is a broader issue I know quite often the fob has been passed to places like McDonald's to provide what should be a basic amienty.
Many operators display their formations on RealTimeTrains which includes the presence or lack of toilets, Southeastern doesn't do that and instead publishes through Darwin/public information screens. Nothing prevents doing both, it's possible the official route has integration costs that operators with relatively consistently toilet availability want to avoid.
Southeastern many metro routes have a mix of trains with and without toilets with no easily determined pattern so the information has more value. It's also available on live departures on National Rail website and their app so passengers can plan in advance if they want to.
The requirements are that a train can’t enter service with no working toilets (if it has them) but if the toilets become defective during the day then efforts should be made to swap the set(s) out or fix the problem if possible.
dk1
Veteran Member
Yes this is totally why we do not take certain trains onto a maintenance depot during the day. They go into any available platform or siding rather than that as they then can’t come out again. Been like that as long as I can remember with certain train faults.
Most people don't use Real Time Trains and SWR doesn't even include the information on Journey Check. I'm talking about services not intended to run with loos but on lines that run services with loos, like the service from Sidcup was.
That isn't a legal requirement though, it is TOC policy.
Bletchleyite
Veteran Member
One of the biggest problems here is that you end up with defective toilets on late evening services where people have been drinking. WMT are so bad at this that I've made it habit to check at least one is working before boarding any late evening train, because very often they're not. Most recently the last but one WMT to beyond Northampton from Birmingham on Tuesday had no working toilet - I used the Avanti instead and changed, but if I'd had a WMT only ticket I'd have been rather miffed.
think it’s in the RSSB rule book ?
I've never seen it, do you have a reference?
Kite159
Veteran Member
RTT will show you that the train has a toilet on board, what it won't show if that toilet is out of order.
Passengers would prefer a train to run even with the toilet out of use, than for the operator to cancel the train due to the toilet being out of use. Especially if it's late evening. Although not ideal
londonbridge
Established Member
- Joined
- 30 Jun 2010
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- 1,488
Visited a new (to me) parkrun venue, yesterday, the park was advertised as having toilets, I arrived around half eight and found them but they weren’t open. A nearby volunteer who was marking out the course said they usually opened around that time. Started having a warm up jog up and down the path, chap came by heading to the toilet so I called out “they’re not open yet”. In a thick eastern European accent he answered “Why? Where else am I gonna p*ss? Ok I’ll just go up the side, who’s gonna f***in know”? With that he proceeded to relieve himself along the side of the building, in full view of anyone coming along the path. He’d only just finished and jogged off towards the starting area when someone came out from the nearby cafe and unlocked the loos, shaking his head as he noticed what had been going on. All because the guy couldn’t wait literally two-three minutes.
trainophile
Established Member
I've been waiting at Birmingham New Street sat on a Hereford train for 50-odd minutes once (poorly timed connection from Liverpool). Staff arrived about 15 minutes before departure time. Train fills up, doors locked, train departs - only then do they announce "I'm sorry there are no working toilets on this train". It's 90 minutes to Hereford and many people do seem to go the whole way. Would have been nice if they'd announced it before it was too late to pop out and use the station facilities.
(Since the timetable was revised a couple of years ago that tends not to happen as it's only a half hour connection, and anyway I know now to go before I board!)
He wasn't to know they were going to be opened though. Why couldn't the café have unlocked them earlier knowing an event was happening?
(Since the timetable was revised a couple of years ago that tends not to happen as it's only a half hour connection, and anyway I know now to go before I board!)
He wasn't to know they were going to be opened though. Why couldn't the café have unlocked them earlier knowing an event was happening?
Angmering1974
Member
That's a very poor show
This has happened to me in the past.
Fortunately, although not well sign posted, which h probably an understatment, I now know there is a disabled toilet on platforms 1&2 at Gatwick Airport and I do use it from time to time.
I did wonder this too.
londonbridge
Established Member
- Joined
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The volunteer had told me they were usually opened around 8:30 and it was just a minute or two after that. Granted, he didn’t know they were about to open, the irony was in him saying “who’s going to know”? and then proceeding to “go” up the side of the building in full view of people walking or jogging along the path.