Is it the end of the line for toilets on our trains?
VALLEY Lines passengers face a future without toilets on services.
Instead, if they’re caught short on their journey, they’ll be encouraged to get off and use new facilities at stations.
Transport expert Professor Stuart Cole said the two remaining firms in the running to operate Wales’ local train services were likely to use light rail – and that if they do opt for trams or tram-trains on some or all services, there won’t be any toilets.
Prof Cole said: “I guess people will get used to it.”
The two firms still bidding to operate trains on the Wales and Borders network are KeolisAmey and MTR.
A spokesperson for the Welsh Government’s transport body Transport for Wales would not comment on what types of trains either bidder would use. But he said there would be investment in new toilets at stations.
He said: “The next Wales and Borders rail service will see significant investments, including tens of millions of pounds’ worth of station improvements and hundreds of millions of pounds in rolling stock investments.
“Whilst we cannot comment on the specifics of mode at present, we can confirm that the Metro system will see much higher-quality toilet provision than is currently provided.”
In May the Welsh Government will confirm which company has been chosen to deliver the next phase of the its Metro project, which includes electrification of the core Valley Lines into Cardiff, including the Merthyr and Rhymney lines.
The two bidding firms submitted their rolling stock solution options for the core Valley Lines in their bids to Transport for Wales just before Christmas. These have not been disclosed publicly.
Prof Cole said: “There are still many ifs and buts, as we don’t know who the winner bidder is yet. But if it is MTR it is likely, given their light rail track record, that a solution would be tram or tram-train. For Keolis, there could be more of a mixed solution, with possibly both light and heavy rail. However, for light rail services there will not be any toilets.
“There are services on the London Underground like on the Metropolitan and Piccadilly Lines, which go into the suburbs with no toilet, with journey times of more than an hour. So I guess people [on the core Valley Lines] will get use to it. However, this sort of cultural behavioural change can take time, but the Welsh Government needs to start to communicating this now.”
As toilets take up significant passenger space – affecting franchise revenues – they are currently not used on trams or tram-trains. There are also more design challenges in putting toilets on light rail rolling stock.
All other tram and light rail networks in the UK, such as in Manchester and Sheffield, have rolling stock without toilets.
A condition of the bid is that passengers, regardless of where they are on the network, are no more than 20 minutes away from “high-quality” toilet facilities – and in reality the vast majority will be far closer.
Electrification of the entire core Valley Lines is expected to be complete by 2023, but there is the prospect of some of the lines being electrified (or partly, if the winner bidder is proposing batterypowered trams) by 2021.