Back on track to stop discarding sewage on lines

Vow to replace all hopper toilets now by 2023

A TARGET to stop dumping train sewage on to tracks by 2020 has not been met.

In 2018, the Mercury asked East Midlands Trains if its trains were involved in discarding sewage on to our county’s tracks - which is the traditional way for trains to rid its carriages of human waste.

They do this by using “hopper” toilets.

The company responded: “Our high-speed trains (HSTs) still have the old-fashioned toilets which do drop stuff on to the track via a mixture with some disinfectant.

“All of our trains across all our routes offer customer toilets. Our fleet of Meridian trains already has retention tanks and we are in the process of upgrading the customer toilets on our local fleets to also include retention tanks.

“We are in discussions with the Department for Transport to identify a way forward for the customer toilets on our high-speed trains.”

The plan was to eradicate hopper toilets, which discard waste on to the tracks with disinfectant, by 2020.

This pledge was made by Mark Carne, Network Rail’s former chief executive, in 2017.

Instead of hopper toilets, retention tanks would be installed on the trains which would then be emptied into depots at stations.

The Mercury asked East Midlands Railway, which took over the East Midlands Trains franchise in 2019, if this target had been achieved.

A spokesman confirmed it had not, but did say most of its trains no longer had hopper toilets.

“The vast majority of our trains are already fitted with controlled emissions toilets and we completely support the drive by Network Rail to remove any trains without Controlled Emissions Toilets by the end of 2023,” he said.

“Prior to the Covid pandemic, we were due to remove all of our Intercity trains without controlled emissions toilets by the end of this year.

“Although we will be reducing the number of these trains in service next month, their complete removal will now be delayed until May 2021 as part of a wider timetable enhancement for services to and from London St Pancras.

“This is part of our multi-million-pound investment plan which includes the complete replacement of our train fleet with either brand new or fully refurbished trains.”