On Dec 15, 11:55*am, Tristan Miller
wrote:
Greetings.

I often take the train between Liverpool Street and Stratford and have
noticed that at the former station the higher-numbered platforms reek of
decaying human excrement. *Apparently the tracks in question serve as an
open cesspit for waste flushed from the train toilets.

This surprises me; surely in this day and age it is possible to build train
toilets which either use septic tanks, or whose flush mechanisms can be
disabled while the train is at a station. *Are there no local or national
laws or regulations concerning the construction of train toilets, and the
dumping of human waste in indoor train stations? *Perhaps the problem is
purely cosmetic rather than a public health issue, but in that case
couldn't the station at the very least apply some deodouriser to the
affected tracks? *I have been in pit toilets which smelled better than
those platforms.

There aren't any specific regulations on the, erm, dumping. There are
regulations on construction, which mean that all new trains with
toilets for the last 20 years have retention toilets.

Unfortunately, the long-distance trains running out of Liverpool
Street - loco-hauled mk3s and 317s - are 30 and 25 years old
respectively, and hence discharge onto the track. When they expire,
they'll be replaced by trains which don't.

--
John Band
john at johnband dot org
www.johnband.org