On Nov 29, 10:28*am, Roland Perry wrote:

ps How many Unisex toilets are there on UK platforms? Obviously the ones
on trains are, and the freestanding coin-operated ones, but what about
conventional loos? The only one I recall was in use at the Betjemen Arms
at St Pancras during the short period between when it opened and when
they'd finished building separate toilets.

Not a railway station, but something fairly similar; the toilets in
the arrivals terminal at Victoria Coach Station are unisex, presumably
because there isn't room to build separate facilities.

In article ,
Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at 09:41:43 on Mon, 29
Assuming that it's supposed to be safer for women travelling alone, or
something like that, then I don't see how that's actually going to
work in practice without staff to enforce it -- in which case it's
actually the presence of staff that makes the platform safer, and not
the single sex waiting room.

It's not going to stop an axe-murderer rushing in and doing his worst,
but there's quite a bit of social pressure for men not to use the Ladies
Waiting Room - much the same as not using the ladies toilets.

Sure, but you've still not convinced me what (perceived) need such a
facility fulfills.

What about stations where the ladies toilet is available and the gents
is locked? Is it *illegal* to suggest that the only available toilet is
"Ladies Only"?

Good question. AIUI one is not allowed to discriminate when supplying
goods and services. I wonder whether you need to be charging for the
services to be within the scope of the act?

-roy

On Sun, 28 Nov 2010 21:40:07 -0000, eastender wrote:

Now I'm looking the station map on the site and seeing pictures of seats
on the platforms but no waiting rooms...

Hint for sitting on those metal benches that suck all the heat out of you
at this time of year: take off your gloves and sit on them, one per
buttock. Then put hands in pockets if not in use.

Colin McKenzie

--
No-one has ever proved that cycle helmets make cycling any safer at the
population level, and anyway cycling is about as safe per mile as walking.
Make an informed choice - visit www.cyclehelmets.org.

In message , at 13:19:51 on Mon,
29 Nov 2010, Roy Badami remarked:

Assuming that it's supposed to be safer for women travelling alone, or
something like that, then I don't see how that's actually going to
work in practice without staff to enforce it -- in which case it's
actually the presence of staff that makes the platform safer, and not
the single sex waiting room.

It's not going to stop an axe-murderer rushing in and doing his worst,
but there's quite a bit of social pressure for men not to use the Ladies
Waiting Room - much the same as not using the ladies toilets.

Sure, but you've still not convinced me what (perceived) need such a
facility fulfills.

Keeps the ladies away from drunks and tramps.

What about stations where the ladies toilet is available and the gents
is locked? Is it *illegal* to suggest that the only available toilet is
"Ladies Only"?

Good question. AIUI one is not allowed to discriminate when supplying
goods and services. I wonder whether you need to be charging for the
services to be within the scope of the act?

Given that many stores have ladies-only changing rooms in their dress
departments, where you are charging for the dresses; and there are
plenty of pay-to-use Ladies loos, I think that's a dead end.
--
Roland Perry

In article ,
Roland Perry wrote:
Sure, but you've still not convinced me what (perceived) need such a
facility fulfills.

Keeps the ladies away from drunks and tramps.

Do you think the (implicitly male) drunks and tramps will keep out of
the women-only waiting room? Or will they be attracted to it?

A google search finds very little information about women-only waiting
rooms, but I did find one suggestion that they went out of favour
largely as a result of such concerns.

-roy

On Nov 29, 3:27*pm, (Roy Badami) wrote:

A google search finds very little information about women-only waiting
rooms, but I did find one suggestion that they went out of favour
largely as a result of such concerns.

It used to be Ladies waiting room and General waiting room; I've never
seen a Gentlemen's waiting room; were there ever such things? There
were also 1st and 3rd class waiting rooms, but that was before my
time. There were also Ladies only compartments of course; I'm not
sure when they went out of use, but they were still around in about
the early '70s.

In message
s.com of Mon, 29 Nov 2010 09:48:22 in uk.transport.london,
writes
On Nov 29, 3:27*pm, (Roy Badami) wrote:

A google search finds very little information about women-only waiting
rooms, but I did find one suggestion that they went out of favour
largely as a result of such concerns.

It used to be Ladies waiting room and General waiting room; I've never
seen a Gentlemen's waiting room; were there ever such things? There
were also 1st and 3rd class waiting rooms, but that was before my
time. There were also Ladies only compartments of course; I'm not
sure when they went out of use, but they were still around in about
the early '70s.

There is a window etched "Ladies Waiting Room" - it may be "LADIES
WAITING ROOM" - on the eastbound platform (2) at South Woodford (George
Lane). When I queried this by email, along with the lack of signage of
the male toilets on the westbound platform, LU's answer was incomplete.
ISTR phoning and being told I could ignore "Ladies" in this case. There
is only one eastbound waiting room. I suppose I should have insisted on
an answer by email.
--
Walter Briscoe

In article
s.com, writes
On Nov 29, 3:27*pm, (Roy Badami) wrote:

A google search finds very little information about women-only waiting
rooms, but I did find one suggestion that they went out of favour
largely as a result of such concerns.

It used to be Ladies waiting room and General waiting room; I've never
seen a Gentlemen's waiting room; were there ever such things? There
were also 1st and 3rd class waiting rooms, but that was before my
time. There were also Ladies only compartments of course; I'm not
sure when they went out of use, but they were still around in about
the early '70s.
As recently as last year (and it may still be there) there was a
Ladies' Waiting Room on Plat 4 at Orpington, with the Ladies' toilet
opening off it. What is annoying is that was no "General" waiting
room and that station is *cold*.
I think Ladies Only compartments lasted right up to the end of
compartment stock.
--
Bill Borland

In message , at 15:27:32 on Mon, 29
Nov 2010, Roy Badami remarked:

Keeps the ladies away from drunks and tramps.

Do you think the (implicitly male) drunks and tramps will keep out of
the women-only waiting room? Or will they be attracted to it?

Are they attracted into the ladies loo?
--
Roland Perry

On Mon, 29 Nov 2010, Roy Badami wrote:

In article ,
Roland Perry wrote:

What about stations where the ladies toilet is available and the gents
is locked? Is it *illegal* to suggest that the only available toilet is
"Ladies Only"?

Good question. AIUI one is not allowed to discriminate when supplying
goods and services. I wonder whether you need to be charging for the
services to be within the scope of the act?

No. Equality Act 2010 c29:

(1) A person (a service-provider) concerned with the provision of a
service to the public or a section of the public (for payment or not)
must not discriminate against a person requiring the service by not
providing the person with the service.

Followed by various other statements of the same idea. This law is new,
but it replaces, amongst other things, one from 1975 which i understand
said much the same thing.

I suspect that providing a ladies' waiting room but neither a gentlemen's
nor a general one *is* a breach of the act, but until someone brings an
action, we won't know, and it won't change. I imagine nobody being
discriminated against by the lack of provision of a small, cold room
adjacent to some public toilets for people of their gender is sufficiently
bothered about it to do so.

tom

--
Men? Women? Give me a colossal death robot any day!