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People locking themselves in the toilet when I need to use it

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jednick

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I'm not afraid to admit I have bladder problems and I need to urinate frequently. I might be able to go for perhaps an hour without going to the toilet, but not much longer.

For that reason, I always have to sit near a toilet on a train.

It really, really annoys me when I need to use the toilet and then somebody (or frequently two people) lock themselves in the toilet for a long while, obviously not wanting to pay for a ticket.

Assuming that those people are actually doing this to evade paying for a ticket, what is my best option to deal with this problem? If I can't go to the toilet when I need to go, it means I'm in agony.
 
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221129

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I'm not afraid to admit I have bladder problems and I need to urinate frequently. I might be able to go for perhaps an hour without going to the toilet, but not much longer.

For that reason, I always have to sit near a toilet on a train.

It really, really annoys me when I need to use the toilet and then somebody (or frequently two people) lock themselves in the toilet for a long while, obviously not wanting to pay for a ticket.

Assuming that those people are actually doing this to evade paying for a ticket, what is my best option to deal with this problem? If I can't go to the toilet when I need to go, it means I'm in agony.
There's nothing you can do.
 

Jonfun

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You could report the problem to the onboard crew, I suppose. But there's not a great deal they can do about it either. If they've been in there for a clearly unreasonable length of time then the crew could make a check on their welfare, but then you end up with a situation of how long is unreasonably long?
 

HowardGWR

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You could report the problem to the onboard crew, I suppose. But there's not a great deal they can do about it either. If they've been in there for a clearly unreasonable length of time then the crew could make a check on their welfare, but then you end up with a situation of how long is unreasonably long?
Perhaps he is on a DCO train with no on-train person (DOO)? If so, he could just tell the toilet occupant not to worry and come out? :)
 

DarloRich

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is this for real? Just bang on the door. Bear in mind you will look silly if it turns out the occupant has a similar medical complaint and is mid flow!
 

jednick

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DIsclaimier: I'm not saying I'm going to do this.

What if I were to get hold of the square key used to unlock the toilet doors from the outside (or, I make a key).

Then, after knocking on the door without response, I open the toilet door myself.

This is after being beyond reasonable doubt that the person(s) would be locked in there for the reasons I think (no ticket).

Yes, I am "not allowed" to do that, but neither are they allowed to do what they're doing either.

I must repeat that in that hypothetical scenario, I would have to feel sure they were totally in the wrong. I wouldn't be taking those actions where there was a reasonable possibility they were innocent.
 
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pemma

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It really, really annoys me when I need to use the toilet and then somebody (or frequently two people) lock themselves in the toilet for a long while, obviously not wanting to pay for a ticket.

I don't know if it's true but one day a Northern guard caught two school pupils - one boy and one girl - hiding in the toilet without tickets or means to pay for tickets. He told them it was illegal for them both to have been in the toilet at the same time (never mind the fact they were fare evading) and said he could call the police but instead he'll just phone their headteacher on this occasion. (I'm doubtful of whether he actually did that.)
 

Jonfun

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DIsclaimier: I'm not saying I'm going to do this.

What if I were to get hold of the square key used to unlock the toilet doors from the outside (or, I make a key).

Then, after knocking on the door without response, I open the toilet door myself.

This is after being beyond reasonable doubt that the person(s) would be locked in there for the reasons I think (no ticket).

Yes, I am "not allowed" to do that, but neither are they allowed to do what they're doing either.

I must repeat that in that hypothetical scenario, I would have to feel sure they were in the wrong.

Toilet doors could be locked for any number of reasons, up to and including the entire carriage floor underneath being missing (viz the South Devon(?) Railway) - I wouldn't therefore recommend using a key to access places you shouldn't be going.
 

jednick

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Do the trains you travel on tend to have one toilet? Or are they stock which has more then one?

Often times, there have been two or more toilets on board, but many times I've been on a train with just one toilet (or one operational toilet).
 

Bletchleyite

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Toilet doors could be locked for any number of reasons, up to and including the entire carriage floor underneath being missing (viz the South Devon(?) Railway) - I wouldn't therefore recommend using a key to access places you shouldn't be going.

If I was using the toilet and you (as a non-member of staff) did that, I would not react politely, shall we say. You don't know the user isn't deaf and so may not have heard you knocking first.

The correct way to deal with this kind of issue is to speak to the guard on a non-DOO train. On a DOO train there isn't a lot you can do, but unless the RPIs are on board it's rather unlikely anyone would do that anyway as they know full well they are unlikely to be stopped.
 

Bertie the bus

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Toilet doors could be locked for any number of reasons, up to and including the entire carriage floor underneath being missing (viz the South Devon(?) Railway) - I wouldn't therefore recommend using a key to access places you shouldn't be going.

If a TOC were to put a carriage into passenger service with part of the floor missing they should have their franchise agreement revoked immediately. If somebody sees some scrotes going into the toilet and not reappearing the chances are they haven’t fallen onto the track due to no floor!
 

cuccir

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Yes, I am "not allowed" to do that, but neither are they allowed to do what they're doing either.

If only there were some sort of saying about two wrongs and rights?

In all honesty - if this is something you're seeing regularly, then you're seeing this much more frequently than on most the network: while it happens, it's not that common. It suggests to me that there's a geographical area with a bit of a problem. If informing the on-train staff is not possible, the only thing you can really do is get in touch with the relevant train company to say that this is repeatedly a problem.
 

FOCTOC

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There's nothing you can do.


Yes there is, take an empty Lucozade bottle with him. Anyway, its obviously not occurred to him that he may not be the only person alive that have toilet issues - or the need to use one.
 

FOCTOC

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Should inform the guard/driver or even the police as it could be a fare dodger.

Or it could be someone with bad guts or a similar problem. In which case you could well deserve a 'talking to'.

Pardon the pun, but theres some real assholes posting crap on here.
 

221129

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DIsclaimier: I'm not saying I'm going to do this.

What if I were to get hold of the square key used to unlock the toilet doors from the outside (or, I make a key).

Then, after knocking on the door without response, I open the toilet door myself.

This is after being beyond reasonable doubt that the person(s) would be locked in there for the reasons I think (no ticket).

Yes, I am "not allowed" to do that, but neither are they allowed to do what they're doing either.

I must repeat that in that hypothetical scenario, I would have to feel sure they were totally in the wrong. I wouldn't be taking those actions where there was a reasonable possibility they were innocent.
If a memver of staff caught you doing that then going to the toilet would be the least of your worries.
 
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I'm not afraid to admit I have bladder problems and I need to urinate frequently. I might be able to go for perhaps an hour without going to the toilet, but not much longer.

For that reason, I always have to sit near a toilet on a train.
My girlfriend suffers with colitis and so I completely sympathise. When she has to go, she has to go and we have to plan every trip by any means of transport carefully, in terms of the times that it is most likely to flare up, what may trigger it (in her case, stress is the biggest trigger) and being within easy reach of the appropriate facilities.

For many people fortunate enough not to suffer with them, bowel and bladder issues are tee-hee, fnarr-fnarr, whoop-whoop toilet humour... until you see how distressed someone is who has had to go without access to the necessary facilities for a considerable time - one example I've witnessed being from the point of going through the boarding gate at an airport, then the plane being delayed on departure and again on the taxiway, then a rough take off and early part of a flight (did I mention that stress is a major trigger?) meaning that, once they can finally access the toilet (even if someone else hasn't got there first), they are in huge amounts of pain. When it's someone you love, it ceases to be 'funny' in any shape or form. All you want to do is help as much as you can.

There is currently a groundswell building on the theme of 'not all disabilities are visible'. In my opinion it's not before time.

Yes there is, take an empty Lucozade bottle with him.
And the prize for the most insensitve comment of the day goes to... Oh, and colitis and Crohn's Disease are far more than 'bad guts'.:rolleyes:
 

shredder1

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Yes there is, take an empty Lucozade bottle with him. Anyway, its obviously not occurred to him that he may not be the only person alive that have toilet issues - or the need to use one.

I`m not one to brag, but Lucozade bottles only have a small bottle neck ;)
 

Darandio

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And the prize for the most insensitve comment of the day goes to... Oh, and colitis and Crohn's Disease are far more than 'bad guts'.:rolleyes:

The post you quoted was in reference to the OP, which specifically mentioned a condition that was neither colitis or Crohn's disease. I'm pretty certain the Lucozade comment was tongue in cheek as well.

I'm sure you don't wish to hear that though, being a fully paid up member of the professionally offended.
 

PeterC

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I`m not one to brag, but Lucozade bottles only have a small bottle neck ;)
Modern stock also lacks a suitable range of discrete corners where you can use the bottle.

The only real alternative is to check out the range of products for men from Tena. (I say that as somebody who has had similar problems in the past)
 

WelshBluebird

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Or it could be someone with bad guts or a similar problem. In which case you could well deserve a 'talking to'.

If two people go into a train loo together, which do you think is more likely?
  1. That they both have stomach / bladder / bowel problems.
  2. They want some "private time".
  3. They are trying to bunk the fare.
Same goes for if someone enters the toilet as soon as they get on the train and conveniently doesn't leave it until the train stops at the station they are alighting at.
 
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Or it could be someone with bad guts or a similar problem. In which case you could well deserve a 'talking to'.

Pardon the pun, but theres some real assholes posting crap on here.

I suffer from IBS. Thankfully it's become infrequent as I've got older but when it kicks in it's not unusual for me to have to spend upto 45 minutes on the toilet.
 

FOCTOC

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If two people go into a train loo together, which do you think is more likely?
  1. That they both have stomach / bladder / bowel problems.
  2. They want some "private time".
  3. They are trying to bunk the fare.
Same goes for if someone enters the toilet as soon as they get on the train and conveniently doesn't leave it until the train stops at the station they are alighting at.

Sorry - but my 30+ years working on the railway suggests otherwise. End of the day, its got damn all to do with you WHY someone might want or need to go straight into the toilet - the fact is they have every right to use it until proven otherwise by someone qualified to make that decision. Being convicted by a kangaroo court of snotty nosed and incontinent train spotters is not such a thing. And people wonder why railway enthusiasts are so disliked/despised by railway professionals??!!
 

WelshBluebird

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Sorry - but my 30+ years working on the railway suggests otherwise. End of the day, its got damn all to do with you WHY someone might want or need to go straight into the toilet - the fact is they have every right to use it until proven otherwise by someone qualified to make that decision. Being convicted by a kangaroo court of snotty nosed and incontinent train spotters is not such a thing. And people wonder why railway enthusiasts are so disliked/despised by railway professionals??!!

So two adults (who are obviously a couple) go into a train toilet together with totally innocent intentions?
 
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