Press release -
Toilet humour no fun for Virgin Trains’ customers
- A bra is one of many strange items flushed down Virgin Trains onboard toilets
- Wet wipes the biggest culprit as costs to repair toilets exceed £180k
- Virgin Trains encourages customers to use bins provided and follow the 3Ps
Virgin Trains is urging customers to follow the 3Ps of flushing after a lady’s bra was found to be the latest cause of a blocked toilet onboard one of its Pendolino trains.
The undergarment joins a list of strange items that include glasses, wedding rings, nappies and even a Manchester United scarf to have been flushed down the pan.
On a typical day around four toilets are taken out of service as a result of inappropriate use. This equates to over 18,000 lost toilet hours per year, and a repair bill in excess of £182,000.
By far the biggest culprit however is the ‘wet wipe’, accounting for over 90% of blockages. Even wipes labelled as ‘flushable’ can lead to problems, the woven material clogging the internal pipes leading to the onboard effluent tanks.
“It did make us smile when we found the bra as it’s not something you would expect to find,” explained Michael Jacks, Head of Fleet and Engineering at Virgin Trains. “
“But it does highlight a very serious issue, and one that greatly impacts on our customers. Bins are provided, and we would remind our customers to follow the 3Ps of flushing. Only pee, poo and paper should be flushed down any toilet.”
Toilet Facts
- Virgin Trains has 484 toilets in service on its trains each day.
- On average a toilet is flushed eight times per hour.
- Talking toilets, along with tongue in cheek signage, have been used onboard Virgin Trains to promote responsible toilet use.
Onboard Message
“Please don’t flush nappies, sanitary towels, paper towels, gum, old phones, unpaid bills, junk mail, your ex’s sweater, hopes, dreams or goldfish down this toilet.
Topics
- Art, Culture, Entertainment
Categories
- fun stuff
- trains
About Virgin Trains
Stagecoach and Virgin are working in partnership to operate the West Coast inter-city route under the Virgin Trains brand, revolutionising travel on one of the UK’s key rail arteries.
The network connects some of the nation’s most iconic destinations including Glasgow, Liverpool, Birmingham, Manchester and London.
Virgin Trains is committed to delivering a high speed, high frequency service, offering shorter journey times, more comfortable travel and excellent customer service. Customers consistently rate Virgin Trains ahead of other long-distance rail franchise operators in the National Rail Passenger Survey (NRPS) commissioned by industry watchdog, Transport Focus.
Virgin Trains has a proud record of challenging the status quo - from introducing tilting Pendolino trains, to a pioneering automated delay repay scheme, introducing the industry-leading onboard entertainment streaming service, BEAM, and becoming the first franchised rail operator to offer m-Tickets for all ticket types.
Virgin Trains operated the East Coast route between March 1, 2015 and June 24, 2018. In that time, we invested £75m to create a more personalised travel experience, including over £40m in the existing fleet. Customers have benefitted from 48 additional services between Edinburgh and London every week, and an extra 22 Saturday services between Leeds and London – a total of 1.74 million additional seats since May 2015.
Working together, the partnership railway of the public and private sectors has published a long-term plan, called In Partnership for Britain’s Prosperity, to change and improve Britain’s railway. The plan will secure almost £85bn of additional economic benefits to the country whilst enabling further investment and improvement, and contains four commitments which will see rail companies: strengthen our economic contribution to the country; improve customers’ satisfaction; boost the communities we serve; and, create more and better jobs in rail. For more information go to Britain Runs on Rail.
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