Here in the UK the pendolino class trains, at least while operated by Virgin, were notorious for entering into an oscillating open/close loop. So much so that several times the staff would announce which cars had working toilets after each pickup station. Often times, apologising for the smell in the other cars.
This reminds me of the trains CrossCountry use in the U.K. (as well as a few other names, East Coast Mainline too maybe?).
They have the air con intake next to the toilet ventilation, so the whole train just smells like a toilet. They are kept clean enough, but it’s got that combination of strong cleaning products and a slight background hint of something else that is very reminiscent of public toilets. Throughout the whole train.
Well, it’s not such a big problem as it is in, say, health care.
It’s in the train co’s interest to have working toilets (not too many, because they displace seats but some) and have them reliable and easy to maintain (else costs go up, maybe even they need more per train). This is why they care about a denial of service attack (btw an electronic one can tell the conductor when the toilet is locked for a grossly atypical duration).
So to that degree the interest of the carrier and the passenger are aligned. This applies to most of the carriage decisions (robust seating, working doors and brakes, and so on).
I've a good 'decent' friend, who had to take a shit on the station platform. Because there was no other option available at the time. Some people can not hold their bowels. I'm sure he'd have surrendered to the station toilets if they were open. UK trains and stations frequently have shut or out of order toilets. I've foolishly hung on, thinking the train will be an option, only to discover it's a no can do. I'll go alfresco every time given the opportunity these days.
> But don't flush any ex-soviet train toilets when you're stopped at a train station.
Not just ex-Soviet trains, British ones too. Newer and renovated trains have sewage tanks, but older trains flush directly onto the tracks (and often therefore have a sign in the toilet asking you not to flush when stopped at a station). According to the BBC, as of 2015 this applied to about 10% of the trains in service: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-30541015
The tabloids periodically have a field day with it when people notice again that these trains are still not quite phased out. E.g. in 2014, there was a minor sensation about the quantity of "fertiliser" on the tracks producing tomato growth: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/trains-dump-much-human-...
I went on one two weeks back. Nothing has changed my dude. And my seat was not even close to the toilets and it smelled like everyone was peeing solid yellow concentrated blocks. You can't make this up. I really wish they'd improve cos trains are super convenient.
It maybe went from worse to bad. I'll give you that but it is nowhere near normal.
That really surprised me. They're running a service from Reading out to Shenfield with no loo. I'd have thought things could get quite urgent under those circumstances.
Just wanted to say that trains without restrooms are the work of the devil. Actually access to restrooms is one of the major things which makes me prefer trains over buses, that and being able to read on a train because on a bus I get car-sickness pretty quickly if I try do to that.
Alternatively, the company could place the toilets in the middle of each car rather than on an end. NB: This solution may be hard to implement once the train cars have been designed/procured.
Not all types, no. I'm currently sitting on a 3-coach (UK) train halfway through its daily diagram and though it's not 100% spotless, it's pretty good. It'll get a light clean in the depot at the end of the day and be back in service first thing tomorrow.
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