Railways: Sanitation

The Department for Transport has made no direct assessment of the adequacy of provision of toilet facilities on trains. Decisions on whether toilets are provided are generally based on the characteristics of the service, including journey length, passenger numbers, stopping patterns and the availability of facilities at stations.

However, the rail industry's Key Train Requirements (published by RSSB) recognise the importance of toilet provision and state that passenger numbers, journey times and the availability of alternative facilities should be considered when determining whether on-train toilets are required. The guidance notes that while toilet provision is now "very much the accepted norm", there may be circumstances where toilets are not provided on some high-frequency metro-style services where trains make frequent stops and maximising passenger capacity is a key consideration.

The same guidance describes toilets as being of "critical importance to passenger comfort", particularly on longer journeys, and contains extensive recommendations covering toilet provision, accessibility, reliability and capacity. It also recommends that, where toilets are not initially specified, consideration should be given to designing trains so that toilet facilities could potentially be installed later if operational requirements change.