Train company ridiculed over broken toilets on six-hour journey

A train journey in the UK can be an eventful experience, but not having a working toilet on a train is something many wouldn’t endure.

Lumo has come under fire for running services lasting around six hours on average despite having no functioning toilets on board.

The toilet mishap plagues some of its services on the 417-mile London Euston and Stirling route on the West Coast Main Line, the UK’s busiest railway artery.

Today, Lumo apologized to passengers on board the 6.11am from Euston as there were no toilet facilities.

Lumo said on X: ‘Apologies to those boarding our 06:11 service from London Euston to Stirling are advised that there are no toilet facilities on this train due to a fault. Please do speak to our onboard staff for further advice/assistance.’

The service ran with a 58-minute delay and terminated at Motherwell, North Lanarkshire instead, some 30 miles south of Stirling.

It also flagged the issue on Saturday when a train toilet was out of action because of the fault.

Services are said to have been stopping for longer at stations like Preston so that people can use platform toilets.

Olly Glover, the Lib Dem MP for Didcot and Wantage, commented on the issue: ‘Is Lumo attempting to become the Ryanair of the rails? Literally taking the p**s’

Another person joked on X: ‘What assistance can staff provide? A bucket?’

One person said: ‘Quite simply you should not be running that train until it is fixed. How can it *possibly* be acceptable to run a 6 hour train service with no sanitary facilities?’

Many also raised questions how not having working toilets could impact passengers with disabilities or health issues.

Train operators in the UK are not legally required to provide toilets on board, but many passengers are used to assuming that services will have some WC facilities, especially on long distance trains.

The affected trains, Class 222 Meridian trains, were refurbished for Lumo by Alstom.

A Lumo spokesperson said: ‘We have been experiencing some issues with the reliability of some of our onboard toilet facilities onboard our West Coast services.

‘We are working closely with Alstom to rectify the issues.’

A spokesperson for Alstom, who refurbished the trains, said: ‘We recognize that this falls short of the standard fare-paying passengers should expect, particularly on long-distance services.

‘Working closely with Lumo, we are reviewing the entire fleet position to reduce the risk of repeat failures, improve overnight servicing checks, and ensure toilet availability is restored and maintained wherever possible on the operator’s West Coast route.’

The UK’s railways are undergoing a transformation under the government’s Great British Railways, which has seen several operators already brought back into public ownership.

The renationalisation aims to improve services currently plagued by delays and cancellations.

Lumo is not part of the move, and it continues to operate on open access basis, meaning it sets it own fares, takes on revenue risk and it doesn’t get any taxpayer-funded subsidies.

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