Passengers on some Lumo trains between London and Scotland are having to travel for over five hours without access to working toilets on board. The operator has been forced to extend stops at certain stations so that passengers can use the toilets on the platforms.
The problems are affecting some services operated by Lumo, a British rail company owned by FirstGroup, on the West Coast Main Line between London Euston and Stirling in central Scotland.
The journey between the two cities, covering a distance of approximately 670 km, can take over five and a half hours, and some trains have been running during this period with all toilets out of order.
Lumo has acknowledged a fault with the trains’ toilet facilities and says it is working with Alstom to resolve the issue.
Longer stops to allow passengers to use the toilet
In the absence of working toilets on board, the operator has resorted to an unusual solution: extending stops at certain stations, so that passengers can get off and use the facilities on the platforms.
Preston is among the stations where trains have made such stops.
One of the affected services, the train departing at 6.11 am from London Euston, accumulated a delay of 58 minutes on Friday and ended its journey at Motherwell, in North Lanarkshire, without reaching its intended destination.
Lumo operates these services on the West Coast Main Line using refurbished Class 222 Meridian diesel trains. The same type of rolling stock is also used by East Midlands Railway, an operator which has, in turn, experienced problems with its on-board toilets.
“We have encountered some reliability issues with certain toilets on board our West Coast services. We are working closely with Alstom to resolve the issues,” said a Lumo spokesperson.
Alstom is the company that refurbished the trains for the operator.
Toilets are not required by law on British trains
The situation is all the more unusual given that, under British law, rail operators are not obliged to provide toilets on board trains.
Lumo also operates services on the East Coast Main Line, between London Kings Cross and Edinburgh, Glasgow and Falkirk.
The company operates under an open access model, meaning it sets its own fares, bears the full commercial risk and receives no public subsidies for operating the trains. For this reason, Lumo is not included in the process through which the British Government is returning to public ownership the rail services currently operated under franchise agreements.
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