Advance tickets and non working toilets

[MrToad]

My son went from Woking to Weymouth last week - which took well over two hours. He complained when he got back that the train did not have any working toilets, and he was not best impressed as he had been drinking a lot of water as it was a hot day.

As he was travelling on an Advance ticket, if he had got off to use the toilets in say Southampton, then that might be viewed as a break of journey and then subsequently travelling on a train he did not hold a ticket for, so potentially could have got a penalty fare or reported for prosecution. Even if he could hang on no longer and decided to abandon his journey, that potentially could have been seen as getting off at an earlier station, and also therefore being potentially liable for said penalty fare.

I advised him if it happened again, he should speak to the guard, but even then, I am unsure if this would do any good. Is it likely if he had to leave the train he had an advance ticket for to use toilets as there were none on the train, would this be viewed sympathetically? He is relatively clued up on ticket types and their limitations so he could see what the issue might be, and I was unable to advise him.

I always though trains were pulled from service if there were no toilets, but said he walked the entire length of the train and there were none. He thinks it was a 5 car service rather than the usual 10.

 

[reb0118]

In short, as long as you're not caught short, no toilet = some of the passengers inconvenienced, or even lack of convenienced. Whereas, no train = all of the passengers inconvenienced.

 

[trainophile]

We had to do exactly that at Salisbury when arriving on a 3-coach GWR with both toilets out of use, bound for Southampton. We'd had coffee while we waited at Bristol for our connection, and there was only one working toilet on the GWR that arrived, which shortly afterwards went out of use as the door mechanism was stuck and the door wouldn't close. The small toilet had been OOS since the outset.

We made a snap decision as we pulled into Salisbury, intending to use the station toilets there, to find on the adjacent platform a Southampton bound SWR with the doors open and the toilets in full view, and jumped on it thinking if we have to buy another ticket we'll have to bite the bullet. When the TM came round checking tickets I started with a very apologetic "we've got a bit of a story...", and as soon as I explained he smiled and said that's fine, no problem at all. We even made our original connection at Southampton!

I'm pretty sure in similar circumstances only a very miserable RPI or guard would object. If they had any doubts they could easily check with the abandoned train operator.

 

[modernrail]

We had to do exactly that at Salisbury when arriving on a 3-coach GWR with both toilets out of use, bound for Southampton. We'd had coffee while we waited at Bristol for our connection, and there was only one working toilet on the GWR that arrived, which shortly afterwards went out of use as the door mechanism was stuck and the door wouldn't close. The small toilet had been OOS since the outset.

We made a snap decision as we pulled into Salisbury, intending to use the station toilets there, to find on the adjacent platform a Southampton bound SWR with the doors open and the toilets in full view, and jumped on it thinking if we have to buy another ticket we'll have to bite the bullet. When the TM came round checking tickets I started with a very apologetic "we've got a bit of a story...", and as soon as I explained he smiled and said that's fine, no problem at all. We even made our original connection at Southampton!

I'm pretty sure in similar circumstances only a very miserable RPI or guard would object. If they had any doubts they could easily check with the abandoned train operator.

If one did object my reply would be very short and sweet. When your company can be bothered to run trains with functioning toilets, I can be bothered to keep to the ticketing restrictions.

The same applies to AC and lighting in my mind.

Fine, run the train but don’t expect people to have to use it if they don’t wish to.