Railway Station Toilets

[TravelDream]

I had the misfortune to use the gents at Liverpool Lime Street today.

I can only describe the smell as rather foul. It's not often I wretch, but it happened whilst stood at the urinal. I daren't have looked in the cubicles.

There were cleaning staff on duty, but, as the images suggest, the place was in quite a state. I gave a second thought to washing my hands as the sink area was green, and had some antibacterial gel I used instead.




(Note: these are images I found online by someone else complaining about the toilets there. I don't typically take photos in public toilets! And I would say they were in a worse state today than these pics suggest).

There does tend to be a fairly common theme of toilets being in a poor state at railway stations.

The ones at Cardiff Central also often have quite the odour.

So what's the issue with train station toilets? Shopping centres and airports which are also very busy and open to the public never seem to have this issue.

 

[FrontSideBus]

You'd have been better off walking past those and going to the Wetherspoon right next door tbh!

 

[styles]

You'd have been better off walking past those and going to the Wetherspoon right next door tbh!

Probably score a couple of lines on the way. Choo choo!

But seriously, yeah, Network Rail adopted a policy of not having to spend a penny to spend a penny, something I agree with. But if you're going to do that you do need to invest it in maintenance as demand will go up.

 

[LowLevel]

They are absolutely gross and to be fair even the local vagrants make a beeline for the Spoons instead.

 

[P156KWJ]

The red bucket under one of the urinals at Birmingham New Street Red zone bogs must be due a long service award by now

 

[rmHawk765]

The only ones I can actually say are usually decent are the large ones at St Pancras. The rest are pretty rubbish, I must agree.

 

[styles]

The only ones I can actually say are usually decent are the large ones at St Pancras. The rest are pretty rubbish, I must agree.

I find they're generally acceptable at (relatively) smaller stations. Nottingham's and Crewe's are much cleaner than say Euston's, though they're also behind the gateline.

Behind the gateline is no guarantee of course, as Baker Street will testify.

 

[duffield]

All the toilets I've used at Nottingham, Derby, Leicester and Sheffield stations are typically clean and in reasonable condition barring the odd loose seat or fiddly lock.

 

[AndrewE]

It is odd that the gents on pfm 4 at Chester is absolutely foul, when the same design of urinal is not smelly at other stations. It made me wonder how professional or detailed the TfW cleaning spec is, or how good the contractor's staff training is...

 

[TravelDream]

All the toilets I've used at Nottingham, Derby, Leicester and Sheffield stations are typically clean and in reasonable condition barring the odd loose seat or fiddly lock.

I used Nottingham and Derby's recently and can confirm they were both decent enough and seemed clean and in a fairly good state.

Not sure if being behind a gateline has much to do with it. Cardiff Central's are all behind the gateline and they can be quite bad.

 

[BJames]

The only ones I can actually say are usually decent are the large ones at St Pancras. The rest are pretty rubbish, I must agree.

Think that the King's Cross ones have generally been ok although I've noticed a decline in quality recently. Likewise I usually go to whichever pub is available (e.g. will go to the Spoons at Victoria rather than their loos) rather than using.

I have complained multiple times about the Liverpool Street toilets, and I did get a response that was along the lines of they were aware the quality isn't great and they're working on it. They did finally replace the sinks and all the soap dispensers seem to be working now - I had to ask the cleaner to refill the soap dispenser last time and he went along testing all of them before saying that one at the far end was working, to which I replied that it would be useful if more than one soap dispenser at the UK's busiest train station might be useful.

To add to this - they have recently renovated the disgusting toilets at Seven Sisters, but they've replaced the male and female toilets with one singular gender neutral toilet and one accessible (by radar key) toilet. The single gender neutral toilet was nice for a few days but by the end of the day is horrific, the cleaning is not up to standard (and I know a lot of this is the fault of the user) but there's regularly an overflowing bin and no toilet paper. When the basics can't be maintained I lose hope really.

 

[fandroid]

Network Rail managed station toilets have had upgrades in recent years. The Waterloo ones are much improved. The traffic there is extremely heavy but they do seem to manage to keep up with maintenance.

Airports generally cope by having lots of toilets around the place. Major stations have enormous throughputs of passengers in comparison, but have fewer toilets! Waterloo desperately needs extra toilets at the low no. platforms end of the concourse, but the only alternatives to the main ones are in the Sidings (also at the high no. platform end). Those just about coped when the main ones were closed but would have collapsed if they had had to continue in that role for much longer.

 

[TheSmiths82]

The ones at Manchester Piccadilly are always awful too, and the cubicles are far too small to get a wheeled suitcase easily in. The Euston ones have been upgraded but they were still awful. St Pancras used to have lovely toilets but I don't think they have enough of them and last time they were so busy I sneaked into the Wetherspoons. The worst ones I have used though were at Gare Du Nord, I must missed one but it seems they only it only has one set of toilets for the entire two shed station and they charge you a euro for using them. I am always glad when I get "airside" at Gare Du Nord.

 

[ian1944]

Apropos Wetherspoon, it's my understanding that there's no need to sneak as they see it as a public service to make their toilets generally available. That's been my experience anyway, but there may of course be others where unrestricted usage and the class of some users have occasioned a non-customer embargo. The problem would be enforcing this in some cases, as frequently the access to the toilets is out of sight of the bar staff.

Separately, I'd commend the quality of the facilities at Berwick, both off the waiting room and on the platform.

 

[eastcoast77]

Toilets I hate the most on the network are the new old gents toilets at Newcastle Platform 12. They're the original toilet from way back in 1890 which they've chosen to restore. It's a nice idea but in practice they're horribly dirty - I assume because unlike new modern toilets they're hard to clean.

Sort of thing I'd like to see in a museum or as a obscure funky pub not when I'm dying for a wee!

 

[birchesgreen]

Same with the bog at Moor Street to be honest, period charm only goes so far.

 

[AndrewE]

However the bogs at Rothesay pier on Bute really are a tourist attraction: https://www.britainexpress.com/scotland/Bute/rothesays-victorian-toilets.htm

 

[Trackman]

I wonder what Hull Paragon's are like these days?
Last time I went, it was awful. Drug use and all.

 

[Willie Bee]

Toilets I hate the most on the network are the new old gents toilets at Newcastle Platform 12. They're the original toilet from way back in 1890 which they've chosen to restore. It's a nice idea but in practice they're horribly dirty - I assume because unlike new modern toilets they're hard to clean.

At least the toilets between platforms 3 and 4 are quite clean

 

[TheSmiths82]

I wonder what Hull Paragon's are like these days?
Last time I went, it was awful. Drug use and all.

Last time I went in there they were clean, but there was a homeless person having a bit of a rant at the cleaner about some benefits problem. This was in the afternoon so I am guessing in the evening they would be worse.

 

[The Mercian]

Wigan Wallgate - relatively clean but stink to high heaven.

 

[Willie Bee]

Wigan Wallgate - relatively clean but stink to high heaven.

Isn't that sentence an oxymoron .. clean but stink ?

 

[lxfe_mxtterz]

The toilets at Guildford are truly grim and stink to absolute high heaven, I find myself having to hold my breath each time I go in there.

And perhaps a contender for the worst (though unsure if it counts being a non-public toilet), the old staff toilets at Chessington South were genuinely like something out of a horror film, singlehandedly the nastiest place I've ever stepped foot into.

The toilets did, however, recently undergo a massive makeover and it's now one of the cleanest and most pleasant places on the network to do your business.