No Functioning Toilet

[Crossover]

Do the 350/4's have 3 toilets? I'm pretty sure they only have 2. Where is the extra one?

Coach B has two - accessible at one end of the coach and a "normal" one at the other end. Coach C has the other.

I was on a LM Birmingham to Liverpool service recently, I boarded at Stafford getting off at Liverpool South Parkway. The guard saw me heading towards the toilet shortly after leaving Stafford and said he was very sorry that it wasn't working. He asked if I would him to arrange a toilet stop at Crewe. As I has an onward connection at LPY and wanted to get home in time to smash out a session at the gym that evening, I politely declined.

If the guard have had arranged such a stop, do they just basically delay the service by say 5/10 minutes while passengers use the facilities?

Depends - have heard of both a train being held and occasions where passengers have been told to catch the following service.

I was on one all the way from Edinburgh to Manchester via the ECML (diversion on a 185) that had the only working toilet go out of service around Drem. It was announced that there would be an extended stop in Newcastle for people to use the facilities there - sounds like they were doing everyone a favour, but we actually had a booked 10-15 minute call anyway for attachment to another unit

Voyager ones have a habit of locking themselves out of use, normally I let the manager know and they are normaly able to get it working again by playing with the buttons in one of the cupboards.

185's are especially sensitive and lock themselves out over the tiniest thing

 

[sarahj]

Coach B has two - accessible at one end of the coach and a "normal" one at the other end. Coach C has the other.



Depends - have heard of both a train being held and occasions where passengers have been told to catch the following service.

I was on one all the way from Edinburgh to Manchester via the ECML (diversion on a 185) that had the only working toilet go out of service around Drem. It was announced that there would be an extended stop in Newcastle for people to use the facilities there - sounds like they were doing everyone a favour, but we actually had a booked 10-15 minute call anyway for attachment to another unit



185's are especially sensitive and lock themselves out over the tiniest thing

You can re-set the toilets on a 377, but if it's done too often on a full tank (you need to check the control panel first to see whats what), what is down in the tank can come back up and say hello....

TBH, I've had more times when a toilet has not been out of order, just someone in. People huff and puff, and then I calmly say 'someone is in it'*. If I'm not there I guess they just wander off muttering about broken toilets and such.

* there are occasions where the person in the toilet is there to avoid a fare. Last week I worked a train ex Vic from Horsham to Portsmouth#. Between Horsham and Chichester, both toilets were in use all the time. The big one, came out just before Chi, where he left the train, and had no ticket, nor any intention of buying one. I opened the little one, just in case you know', and found a punter hiding. He was removed from the train at Nutbourne.

#due to power issues between PMS and PMH we terminated 36 mins late at Fratton. Took us over 30 to get from Hilsea to Fratton.

 

[whizzylizzy]

TPE New trains
CAF Class 397 will have 4 toilets onboard the 5 carriages.
The Loco Hauled fleet will also have 4 toilets onboard the 5 carriages.
The Hitachi 803 will have 5 toilets onboard the 5 carriages.

 

[6Gman]

You can re-set the toilets on a 377, but if it's done too often on a full tank (you need to check the control panel first to see whats what), what is down in the tank can come back up and say hello....

Nice.

:roll:

 

[yorksrob]

Another TOC local depot wont be of any use unless there are contracts in place to access and use the facilities.

It does seem unacceptable if trains are going toiletless due to TOC's not making the necessary arrangements with other companies depots.

 

[Starmill]

My phone corrected is sufficient to insufficient! I was actually trying to point out that, as long as they are all working, the ration on TransPennine stock actually is a good balance.

 

[MCSHF007]

I'm sure when I was younger there were units where you could watch the track through the bottom of the pan...

Experienced that in Austria & Poland - having a dump in winter was rather a chilly experience. Certainly discouraged lingering longer than biologically necessary.

 

[N/100]

Experienced that in Austria & Poland - having a dump in winter was rather a chilly experience. Certainly discouraged lingering longer than biologically necessary.

In Poland back in Iron Curtain days you were lucky to find the pan still there to watch the track through...

 

[MCSHF007]

In Poland back in Iron Curtain days you were lucky to find the pan still there to watch the track through...

That does indeed bring back an unpleasant memory. A diet of Bigos and 'holding on' were somewhat incompatible.

 

[Jonfun]

Voyager ones have a habit of locking themselves out of use, normally I let the manager know and they are normaly able to get it working again by playing with the buttons in one of the cupboards.

Voyager toilets are fussy at times but you can usually get them going again, even if only long enough for the people who need to go to go. If the tank's full or the door's knackered then it'll need a fitter (though it's rarely necessary to call one to extract someone trapped inside) but pretty much anything else your friendly neighbourhood traincrew should be able to sort, one way or another. In a lot of cases, if you give the loo a few minutes peace they'll just fix themselves.

 

[wingsoveryorks]

British Railways were the best, their toilets flushed before the rest, but please refrain from using one right now. Not whilst we are at the station, grin and bare your constipation, let the porter hold your bags somehow.

 

[AndrewE]

On a (narrow) boat, you moor up, they stick the pipe in, switch on and 'splurggh phht gargle spoosh blurrgh' and it's empty. You pay the person and continue on your way. Easy.

That's all very well as long as someone is on hand to do the necessary. Otherwise you wait while the man is located to do your suck for you.
As Neil (almost) says, the railway is supposed to be a planned network of reliable connections and it is totally unacceptable for a TOC to shrug its shoulders and say "What, you say the loos are all full/faulty/unusable?"

Passengers are totally powerless, but they pay a lot more than bus fares (part of which is because the management are supposed to be organising journeys (Passenger Control) and maintenance - including tanking and bog-emptying.)

Trains used to be trusted and you paid a premium to cover these back-office functions. Without them being done properly we're heading for a third world railway.

 

[misterredmist]

It's a no brainer, proper functioning, clean and accessible toilets are a must on trains, and should be bog standard equipment

 

[SpacePhoenix]

How long does it take a mobile tanking rig to empty a tank?

 

[AndrewE]

How long does it take a mobile tanking rig to empty a tank?

That's not very practical, if we are talking about a train in service then getting a road tanker to it would be quite a big job, especially at stations where a train calls for more than 3 or 4 mins (anyone fancy trying it at Birmingham New St or Wolves?) - and how many lorries could you tolerate on a platform to empty most of a train? And that's ignoring the realities of actually achieving access...

 

[Bletchleyite]

That's not very practical, if we are talking about a train in service then getting a road tanker to it would be quite a big job, especially at stations where a train calls for more than 3 or 4 mins (anyone fancy trying it at Birmingham New St or Wolves?) - and how many lorries could you tolerate on a platform to empty most of a train? And that's ignoring the realities of actually achieving access...

Unless there is a serious medical condition going around, it is about planning, not about emergency emptying. The tanks are quite large.

 

[Crossover]

How long does it take a mobile tanking rig to empty a tank?

That's not very practical, if we are talking about a train in service then getting a road tanker to it would be quite a big job, especially at stations where a train calls for more than 3 or 4 mins (anyone fancy trying it at Birmingham New St or Wolves?) - and how many lorries could you tolerate on a platform to empty most of a train? And that's ignoring the realities of actually achieving access...

It was discussed on a thread recently too and I believe it was determined that access is only one of the (many) problems with clearing the waste tanks away from a depot

 

[najaB]

It was discussed on a thread recently too and I believe it was determined that access is only one of the (many) problems with clearing the waste tanks away from a depot

I would think that smell and the potential for contamination of the station environment would be fairly high up the list as well.

 

[6Gman]

Unless there is a serious medical condition going around, it is about planning, not about emergency emptying. The tanks are quite large.

My train planning days preceded fancy dan toilets but I'm pretty sure that tank emptying is taken into account in preparing working diagrams.

The problems - I suspect - stem from out of course incidents:

1. Last-minute switching of sets;
2. Technical issues within the on-board system;
3. Errors in tanking/ emptying;
4. Equipment failures

etc etc

And we come back to the age-old question : do we prefer cancellation to short-formed trains/ faulty toilets/ Pacers etc etc

 

[Blindtraveler]

Is it just a case of emptying or do tanks have to be steamed out/disinfected/delt with in some way before the unit goes back into traffic?

Also, are all types of stock quite standardised in their equipment for the discharge and storage of tanked waist?

 

[Rick1984]

Could be worse. On a coach excursion in Cuba with there was no toilet and we stopped in some woods for a relief stop! The female guide asked me if where I went was a good spot!

Also in Latvia on return from Sigulda to Riga my Twin and I couldn't access the toilet so ended up getting off in the suburbs for a **** in the bushes. Luckily found the tram line fairly easy to carry on back into venture

 

[yorksrob]

Could be worse. On a coach excursion in Cuba with there was no toilet and we stopped in some woods for a relief stop! The female guide asked me if where I went was a good spot!

Very "Carry on at Your Convenience".