(L)Aventras have a flaw!

Very interesting to read the Crossrail supplement ( RAIL 826). However, it prompts me to query the absence of lavatories on the Aventras.

I tried to raise this issue with Boris Johnson some time ago, but the best I could get by way of a response was a reply from one of his flunkies, saying that lavatories weren’t necessary because the Aventras would only be used by commuters who didn’t have them on their existing trains.

So there we have it: no one is going to travel from Chelmsford or Dartford to Heathrow via Crossrail, they’re all going to continue to wrestle with the M25!

Contrast this innovative east-west route with north-south Thameslink. If you’re travelling from Brighton to Luton Airport, or from Bedford to Gatwick, and you need the loo, the internal display tells you in which car to find one. No problem there.

Bad luck, however, if your journey is from Chelmsford or Dartford to Heathrow. You’ll have to jump off the Crossrail train, with all of your luggage, to look for a station loo, and then trust that no one pinches your stuff while you are in no position to give chase! But wait a minute… the flunkey says no one’s going to use Crossrail from those regions! So a storm in a tea cup? Just make sure there’s not too much tea in your cup!

On the other hand, common sense might yet prevail. A loo might be provided in car 8 or car 9, before they come off the production line. Richard Lancaster, Kent