Train Cleaning

[TEW]

Exeter Depot has been having some work done recently to install more facilities to allow it to take over some more unit work.

 

[moonrakerz]

The major difference between FGW's and SWT's Sprinter fleets and their upkeep concerns the operational requirement for FGW units to be away from home depots on a regular basis. Units are often stabled at Westbury, Weymouth, Gloucester etc where there are no carriage wash facilities available

Yes and no .....if you look at the two routes, FGW & SWT, they are very similar, in lengths and times taken. Also both have their maintenance depots "in the middle", so SWT too, end up with units all over the place at night; Waterloo, Yeovil and Exeter (possibly others). I presume there are no carriage wash facilities used at these locations overnight.

I think I have said this before, so apologies for repeating it: the FGW livery is drab, SWT's always looks bright, even when (not very often) it is a bit travel stained.

 

[TEW]

Believe SWT's diesel fleet mainly ends up at Salisbury each night. Think two units stable at Exeter New Yard which has no facilities. One at Bournemouth with good facilities. A couple at Fratton I think and perhaps some at Basingstoke. FGW's fleet on Portsmouth-Cardiff route alone ends up at Fratton, Westbury, St.Phillips Marsh and (I think) one unit at Cardiff Canton. If you include the whole West fleet they could also end up at Gloucester, Weymouth, Exeter, Laira and Penzance.

The SWT livery does look much better. But the new FGW plain blue livery also looks bright and clean.

 

[silentone]

Had I seen the guard, I would have. But my regular journey was only Durham - Darlington, so most of the time they didn't manage to make it into the carriage I sat in.

Now, EC used to have signs up at the end of the passenger saloons with a unique code you could use in a text message that would identify the vehicle you were in if you had any comments; I did have a look for one of them, but couldn't see one either.

A number of them were defaced as they had Nationalised Express on them. Some had East Coast stickers put over them, others have been removed but most trains still have them. Every carriage has a different one I believe.

On-train cleaners also don't carry mops, it's not very hygienic to be carrying a mop through the train that you've used to wipe up "whatever" has been on the floor. Usually there is a small amount of water on the floor which comes mainly from the sinks (as a result of the motion of the train) and not the toilet. If the place is a complete washout then there's a good chance the tank is leaking!! Toilets will normally be mopped at KGX on turnaround.

I've also lost count the number of times people complain to me that the toilet doesn't flush and when I goto check it flushes.

Trains get a normal level of cleaning at the end of the day and during turnarounds which includes the steam cleaning of some carpets. Entire sets will also receive a deep clean but I'm not sure how often that is.

 

[jon0844]

And retention tanks on the Mk4's will be emptied when coming around the Hatfield curve, spraying the content on rail workers and passengers on platform 1 alike!

 

[Flamingo]

Thinking of cleaning roofs, I saw today that somebody has emptied a few cans of paint over the roof of a HST (off a bridge, I would guess). Made a right mess.

 

[DaveNewcastle]

What do we do when you find a little area with germs on it? We apply a dribble of Dettol, don't we? (other branded disinfectants are also available).
So, who do we ask to sponsor our research if we want to examine train cleanliness as a student project? Well, Dettol. (apparently)

Study finds Metro carriages are dirtiest in UK
by Michael Brown, Evening Chronicle, May 12th 2011

The Metro system came out the worst in the Dettol hygiene survey

METRO managers say they will strive to improve after bug-busting boffins claimed their carriages were the filthiest in Britain.

Scientists from Aston University, working for cleaning brand Dettol, took samples from city transport services including the London Underground and busses in Cardiff.

Manchester’s MetroLink came out top, with an average of only 213 bacteria per square centimetre tested - but in a single coach on Newcastle’s network they found more than 190,000 bacteria specimens living on a small patch of seat.

Richard McClean, managing director of Metro operator DB Regio, said he was “disappointed and surprised” by the results given the efforts the company had been making to improve hygiene.

“We will be getting in touch with Dettol’s researchers to understand these results better, as well as looking at what we can do to improve things,” he said. As the survey shows, cleanliness is important to the people of Tyne and Wear and, like them, we are going out of our way to improve things.

Full story here - http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/north...#ixzz1M9SnNMgl
[Thanks to NH for providing the link to that story]

 

[Blindtraveler]

Thanks Dave, v interesting if not a tiny bit worrying.
*checks rucksack for wet wipes and hand gell*

 

[Fred26]

What do we do when you find a little area with germs on it? We apply a dribble of Dettol, don't we? (other branded disinfectants are also available).
So, who do we ask to sponsor our research if we want to examine train cleanliness as a student project? Well, Dettol. (apparently)

Full story here - http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/north...#ixzz1M9SnNMgl
[Thanks to NH for providing the link to that story]

Rentokil did something similar last year. Bad Science claim it was entirely fabricated to increase sales of their products.

Rentokil and Bad Science

 

[jon0844]

Of course. These things have been done many times. I've had similar press releases from companies that sell cleaning solutions for office equipment and, more recently, mobile phones. They nearly always make the same claims (like there's some generic 'scary stats' document to work from).

You can be assured that your keyboard, mobile touchscreen and phone have more bacteria than a toilet seat etc.

 

[BestWestern]

Yes and no .....if you look at the two routes, FGW & SWT, they are very similar, in lengths and times taken. Also both have their maintenance depots "in the middle", so SWT too, end up with units all over the place at night; Waterloo, Yeovil and Exeter (possibly others). I presume there are no carriage wash facilities used at these locations overnight.

I think I have said this before, so apologies for repeating it: the FGW livery is drab, SWT's always looks bright, even when (not very often) it is a bit travel stained.

SWT certainly manage to clean their units more frequently and to a higher standard than FGW, and much of that is due to the excellent efforts made by Salisbury depot. This is apparent internally as well as externally. I would imagine the ongoing problems with St P's Marsh and its excessive workload further hinder things for FGW. Part of the reason FGW's livery can appear drab is because it is formed entirely of bodyside vinyls, which has to be the case due to the enormous amount of very small lettering in includes. SWT's is a proper paintjob, and I would imagine it reacts better to the chemicals used in a washplant, which would leave a shine on paint but cause vinyls to gradually fade. As I said before, the manky peeling paint on the cab ends of the FGW 158's don't help the situation either :roll:

 

[Blindtraveler]

sad to here GW aint doin so wel on the old cleaning as one of the things first got rite wen they took on scotrail was to give pritty much everything a good scrub and paid particular attention to train toilets.

 

[ainsworth74]

wen they took on scotrail was to give pritty much everything a good scrub and paid particular attention to train toilets.

That's probably got more to do with the fact that Transport Scotland have Scotrail tightly specified exactly what levels of cleanliness that Scotrail have to maintain. If they fail to reach these standards then I believe that Scotrail get fined. Whereas FGW don't have such a tightly controlled franchise in terms of station and train presentation.

 

[Blindtraveler]

this is indeed true, but in 2004, ts wernt as powerful and I think a lot of it was initially down to first

 

[TEW]

I'd say the standard of interior cleaning on FGW trains is still high.

 

[scotsman]

Regarding cleaning the inside of trains, from a practical point of view (as a poor sod who has to walk through picking up rubbish on occasions), why do people think it is somewhat "tidier" to stick the rubbish as far underneath the seat as possible?

It's a lot easier to clean if all rubbish is sitting on tables / seats / tray-backs, rather than having to scrabble around on the floor for it.

Thanks for your help!

I've not had that, but I've been through trains after pax have got off and they've just left everything lying around. Families are the worst, usually cartons and wrappers just chucked on the floor or on the table. Do they do that on the 'big' railway, I wonder? Is it because they perceive it more as a tourist attraction?

 

[Flamingo]

I've not had that, but I've been through trains after pax have got off and they've just left everything lying around. Families are the worst, usually cartons and wrappers just chucked on the floor or on the table. Do they do that on the 'big' railway, I wonder? Is it because they perceive it more as a tourist attraction?

Yes, they can do. Sometimes, it's just the whole "It's somebody elses job to do it" mentality.

I do find, that if I walk through the train with a bin-bag during the journey, (calling "Bring out your dead"), that most people will put stuff into the bag, picking it up off the floor to do so. It's pretty painless doing it that way, to be honest.

 

[TEW]

The use of cleaning staff who come through the train asking for rubbish and emptying the bins does seem to be effective. If the bins aren't emptied on a long journey then they can be full and overflowing by the end.