Are free station toilets meeting their Waterloo?

I completely agree – it’s a real liberty. It doesn’t only apply to Railway Stations though: the same thing is happening on Bus/Coach Stations. Who is reaping the financial benefit anyway? Is it going toward keeping the stations clean? Or the local council? And regarding the Rail Stations, there had to be some liaison (or conspiracy!) between them and the rail operators, if trains are now being made without a loo! What are you meant to do if you ‘take short’ before the end of a long rail journey? Does the train wait for you while you ‘spend a penny’ at an intervening station? Also, how does this square with access to a loo for people who are disabled?
Surely, in the 21st Century, there must be some sort of law regarding toilet provision – and if there isn’t, there should be.
Shouldn’t all cafes have to provide a loo? I thought they did. So is it ok then for a station cafe to not provide one because there is one in the station – albeit one where you have to pay? And what about on board a train – do those trains without loos still provide food and drink…………?

I have found that facilities you have to pay to use are invariably cleaner and never lack loo paper, soap and paper towels, wherever they are… Money well spent as far as I’m concerned.

Agree with Pat – It is not just Stations it is everywhere – They used to be called Public Conveniences – note the first word.and the meaning of the second – Here locally there used to be 6 within a mile – open 24 hours – clustered around the ‘town’ centre. There are now none – they’ve been closed – all but one – that is only open during business hours and costs 20p. The actual result is a vast increase in people urinating in the streets.particularly in alleyways – though not restricted to them..

I’d sooner have a ‘stinky’ convenience than no convenience at all.

I understand that one problem has been vandalism – at least that’s the excuse given by B & Q who closed theirs down – So I no longer go to B & Q/

For someone who is now rather incontinent due to age – It is a total nightmare on any form of train journey – So I don’t go by train very often now.

I think we must accept that a small charge for use of a toilet is a necessary deterrent to abuse and vandalism. However the increase from 20p to 30p seems more like the train companies getting greedy and annoys users by the inconvenience of the coins needed. I was surprised that Passenger Focus and London Travelwatch did not object to the increase more.

When pay toilets were introduced at London Liverpool Street station I was annoyed at first but changed my mind when I found them to be better maintained and with fewer undesirable aspects than previously. My local station has quite decent free toilets on the London-bound platform but that is in the country and there is a fair amount of supervision. Main line terminals attract hundreds of thousands of users and the toilets soon become disgusting if not well-controlled and maintained. I now tend to avoid using the on-tarin facilities as they are generally unsavoury and wait until I reach London where for just 30p I can use the toilet and have a wash without people banging on the door or finding there is no toilet tissue/soap/hand towel. Just one problem – Network Rail does not think the 30p charge should include hot water. A point to bear in mind in relation to retail premises is that the provision of customer toilets is usually a condition of the planning permission for a major store, especially where it has a cafe or sells food/drink; if they then close the toilets they might be in breach of their consent and the local authority can enforce implementation of the condition. It is very annoying that many retail “parks” with stores selling beds & furniture, electronics, appliances homewares, etc do not have toilets although some stores do have a minimal facility hidden away in the inner recesses of the shop.

I wonder how those prisoners on the train last night got on and if that had any toilet facilities. I am pretty sure that if I had been caught up in that fiasco without access to ‘the facility’ I would not have risked my health at nearly 65 waiting for relief. As an unwilling prisoner on the train it is just possible that the seat might have suddenly gained an alternative use and I doubt that I would have left a 20 or 30 pence use fee!
In short the arrogant losers running the modern railways need some real world introductions.

If the train toilets were clean and looked hygenic and this is what the charge was for then I would be fine with paying to use the facilities. But, they aren’t and never have been! Why should we have to pay to use a dirty toilet! And what about people with medical conditions that have to use the toilet regularly? Is it fair that they have to constantly pay to do something they NEED to do? 30p doesnt seem like much on it’s own but it begins to mount up!

i think is shocking have pay for pee 30p it cost me today just for wee can u imgaine if u had alot of kids that alot of 30p lol

The victorians introduced public toilets to clean up the streets. If everyone starts charging for what what ought to be a right the we will all suffer (foul smelling streets and more disease is what we will be in for). To those people who defend charges you might want to think about how you will feel when you are older and find yourself unable to get to or afford a toilet in time. I hope it doesn’t happen to you but its the world you are creating for yourself right now.

There is absolutly no reason why train stations should charge to use there toilets. First the excuse that they have to charge in order to prevent the toilets from being vandilised is nonsense. In many large stations the toilets are situated INSIDE the station and you have to get through the ticket barrier to get anywhere near them. This alone should prevent may vandals and drug addicts from using them, if not then there are always transport police which may deter them or if catching them doing illicete activities bring them to prosicution. Any money raised from fine in this way could be used to repair and maintain the stations toilets.
The second excuse the use is that charging people to use the facilities helps to maintain the toilets, but many large stations also have well known high street chains doing buisiness there, surely the rent generated from these chains for retail space could be used to maintain the facilities at an appropriate standard. Also any money generated from advertising space in the station could be used to help keep the toilets free and clean.
Also the rail companies are subsadised by the goverment, surely some of this could be used to maintain the facilities and keep them free for the public.

A few random words of wisdom:
Network Rail are the organisation which impose the charge to use the toilet at certain UK stations. All the stations where this applies are large hubs managed by Network Rail. They are a government funded body which mostly look after the track and rail infrastructure.

I tend to use the ones on trains about 10 minutes before I get off at any of these hub stations.

I believe these toilet charges are in place at Birmingham New Street too. Like many of the London termini this is also run by Network Rail.

If you are in King’s Cross station walk to St. Pancreas, it isn’t far and the toilets are free! St. Pancreas in my experience is also the most pleasant of all the London termini to be in. If there is an option I normally route through it if I can.

Network rail run stations normally have plain blue signs with white writing on them. They also give each station they run a different symbolic and round logo. It is normally seen of station signs which show the name of the station.

What is the ultimate purpose of these coments? If you get enough agreeing that the toilet facilities should be free at stations, do you have the resources to get something done about it?
I am more than willing to sign any petitions if it will help.

I cannot believe 50p at Victoria… We should not pay as airlines pay for facilities at airports and the rail operators pay to use Network rails system so hence comparison…. I have tendered a freedom of information request to find out what Southern pay for using Victoria…

I am happy to organise a concerted campaign on this as I am literally p****d off with not only a 70% rise but why we pay in first place….. I retired last week as fed up paying Southern for late and cancelled trains….. last journey was one cancelled and next 10 mins late….

Let me know your thoughts Don

In our town – touristy – the Public WCs are dire; the local authority who have made huge budget cuts have no money in the appropriate pot to upgrade them.
The option seems for the Town Council to take over the WCs and lease them out to a a local business group who will modernise them, run them and of course charge for their use.
It is what happens when budgets for public services get cut.

The whole concept of having to pay in a toilet for a perfectly normal function is abhorrent. I refuse under any circumstances to pay their ridiculous charges often crossing the road outside to the nearest hotel and availing myself of their facilities on principle, why should some greedy profiteering business get my well earned money purely to say that their toilets are cleaned which I have on good authority that they are not, merely to make them look as if it is for a service rubbish total rubbish and if there is not a hotel in sight then I use my skill in going somewhere quiet and unobserved, this charge should be abolished and unless it is I will never endorse using fee paying toilets in stations never never ever !!!!!!!

If you’re tall just step over the barrier. If I get stopped I just explain how much my ticket was and I don’t have any small change anyway but I still need to go… the trouble is is that once something becomes the norm people just accept it no matter how much of a liberty it is.

I don’t mind paying 30p to use the station toilets, provided they are kept clean, everything works, and there are no unsavoury goings on. In the days when the toilets at terminal stations were free of charge the amount of abuse, misuse, vandalism, loitering, and prevailing disrepair of facilities was dreadful. Now at the London terminals that I use the situation is much improved. I dislike using the toilet on the train because they are usually in a bad state and there is always something not working properly so arriving at the station is a relief.