![Train toilet](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cb/Train_toilet.jpg)
Many
passenger trains (usually medium and long-distance) have
toilet
A toilet is a piece of sanitary hardware that collects human urine and feces, and sometimes toilet paper, usually for disposal. Flush toilets use water, while dry or non-flush toilets do not. They can be designed for a sitting position popu ...
facilities, often at the ends of
carriages. Toilets suitable for
wheelchair
A wheelchair is a chair with wheels, used when walking is difficult or impossible due to illness, injury, problems related to old age, or disability. These can include spinal cord injuries ( paraplegia, hemiplegia, and quadriplegia), cerebr ...
users are larger, and hence trains with such facilities may not have toilets in each carriage.
Hopper toilet
The traditional method of disposing human waste from
train
In rail transport, a train (from Old French , from Latin , "to pull, to draw") is a series of connected vehicles that run along a railway track and transport people or freight. Trains are typically pulled or pushed by locomotives (often ...
s is to deposit the waste onto the
tracks or, more often, onto nearby ground using what is known as a hopper toilet. This ranges from a hole in the floor to a full-flush system (possibly with sterilization). The hole in the floor (also known as a drop chute toilet or direct flush toilet) system is still in use in many parts of the world, particularly on older
rolling stock
The term rolling stock in the rail transport industry refers to railway vehicles, including both powered and unpowered vehicles: for example, locomotives, freight and passenger cars (or coaches), and non-revenue cars. Passenger vehicles can ...
. The principal disadvantage is that it can be considered crude or unhygienic and dangerous to health and the environment – it litters the railway lines and can convey serious health risks when the train passes over or under a
navigable waterway
A waterway is any navigable body of water. Broad distinctions are useful to avoid ambiguity, and disambiguation will be of varying importance depending on the nuance of the equivalent word in other languages. A first distinction is necessary b ...
. Passengers may be discouraged from flushing or using toilets while the train is at a
station or standing at a red signal. To enforce this limitation, toilets may be automatically locked when the train pulls into a station or stops at a red signal. In the United States, railway employees were required to lock the toilets closed whenever a passenger train stood in a station or at any other location designated by instructions in the timetable. Toilets would promptly be unlocked upon departure.
Properly-designed drop chute toilets will draw air like a chimney, pulling air through the lavatory door vents and down and out through the toilet, reducing odor. Hopper toilets are similar to old-fashioned
sea toilets in that they release the excreta directly to the environment, untreated.
In the United States,
Amtrak
The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous U.S. States and nine cities in Canada ...
phased out its use of these toilets in the 1980s after waste from a
Silver Meteor
The ''Silver Meteor'' is a passenger train operated by Amtrak between New York City and Miami, Florida. Introduced in 1939 as the first diesel-powered streamliner between New York and Florida, it was the flagship train of the Seaboard Air Line R ...
train crossing the
St. Johns River in
Florida
Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...
, between
Palatka and
DeLand, landed on a fisherman who filed a lawsuit.
In the UK, at the end of 2019, hopper toilets on timetabled passenger services remained in use. A plan to protect all rail workers and reduce public health risks was delayed with several operators applying for waivers.
In 2021,
Indian Railways
Indian Railways (IR) is a statutory body under the ownership of Ministry of Railways, Government of India that operates India's national railway system. It manages the fourth largest national railway system in the world by size, with a tota ...
completed the phaseout of drop chute toilets, replacing them with indigenously developed bio-toilets. Apart from improving hygiene, the phaseout will save Indian Railways 4 billion rupees annually, due to the elimination of corrosion on the rails caused by human waste. They were replaced with bio-vacuum toilets, which use bacteria to decompose human waste, fulfilling a phaseout pledge made in 2010.
Chemical holding tank
Chemical holding tanks (retention tanks) are usually included on newer carriages and railcars in wealthier and more densely populated parts of the world. One issue is that the tanks need to be regularly emptied, often at a
terminal station
A train station, railway station, railroad station or depot is a railway facility where trains stop to load or unload passengers, freight or both. It generally consists of at least one platform, one track and a station building providing su ...
or prolonged stop-over. If a train needs to be used again quickly, the tanks may not get emptied. In this case, toilets may back up, which can result in toilets being closed.
Vacuum toilet
Vacuum systems
A vacuum is a space devoid of matter. The word is derived from the Latin adjective ''vacuus'' for "vacant" or " void". An approximation to such vacuum is a region with a gaseous pressure much less than atmospheric pressure. Physicists often di ...
used in the newest carriages are similar to those in
airliners: waste is pulled into a holding tank with a high pressure pump. Their disadvantages are the same as of chemical holding tanks, in addition they require stable power supply for working, and flushing of anything else but water and human waste (e.g. toilet paper) can easily break the pump.
Composting toilet
Some trains may have
composting toilet
A composting toilet is a type of dry toilet that treats human waste by a biological process called composting. This process leads to the decomposition of organic matter and turns human waste into compost-like material. Composting is carried out b ...
tanks, which use bacterial action to break down solid and liquid waste. Only the broken down clean liquid is released to the trackbed after sterilisation. The solid waste only has to be emptied every half year. This type of toilet is in use in some trains in the Netherlands and Switzerland.
Cultural references
In the United States,
Dvořák's tune
"Humoresque Number 7" became the setting for a series of mildly
scatological humorous verses, regarding passenger train toilets, beginning:
In ''
The Good Soldier Svejk'', author
Jaroslav Hašek
Jaroslav Hašek (; 1883–1923) was a Czech writer, humorist, satirist, journalist, bohemian and anarchist. He is best known for his novel '' The Fate of the Good Soldier Švejk during the World War'', an unfinished collection of farcical inc ...
used
hypocatastasis
Hypocatastasis is a figure of speech that declares or implies a resemblance, representation or comparison. It differs from a metaphor, because in a metaphor the two nouns are both named and given; while, in hypocatastasis, only one is named and t ...
to indicate the fruit of hopper toilets, while conveying soldiers' envy and contempt for their
general officer:
A popular
Russian internet running joke and one of the most popular
Yandex
Yandex LLC (russian: link=no, Яндекс, p=ˈjandəks) is a Russian multinational technology company providing Internet-related products and services, including an Internet search engine, information services, e-commerce, transportation, map ...
search requests is "what would happen if you dropped a crowbar into a train toilet at full speed?"
Gallery
File:Train toilet II.jpg, The basics: paper towels
A paper towel is an absorbent, disposable towel made from paper. In Britain, paper towels for kitchen use are also known as kitchen rolls, kitchen paper, or kitchen towels. For home use, paper towels are usually sold in a roll of perforated she ...
, toilet roll and soap dispenser
A soap dispenser (in Europe mostly known as a soap squirter) is a device that, when manipulated or triggered appropriately, dispenses soap (usually in small, single-use quantities). It can be manually operated using a handle or can be automatic. ...
File:20060730160336 - T27 - Toilet.jpg, Squat toilet
A squat toilet (or squatting toilet) is a toilet used by squatting, rather than sitting. This means that the defecation posture used is to place one foot on each side of the toilet drain or hole and to squat over it. There are several types of s ...
in Chinese train
File:Taiwan HSR toilet.jpg, Toilet in Taiwan high speed rail
High-speed rail (HSR) is a type of rail system that runs significantly faster than traditional rail, using an integrated system of specialised rolling stock and dedicated tracks. While there is no single standard that applies worldwide, lines ...
train
File:Do not use the toilet.jpg, "DO NOT USE the toilet while the train is stopped at the station" notice in Polish, German, French, and English, displayed by Polish State Railways
(''PKP S.A.''; en, Polish State Railways, Inc.) is the dominant Rail transport operations, railway operator in Poland.
The company was founded when the former state-owned enterprise was divided into several units based on the need for separati ...
File:Lower Level Superliner Bathroom.jpg, This is one of several restrooms on the lower level of Superliner #34960
File:Acela Express regular restroom.jpg, A restroom on Amtrak's Acela Express
The ''Acela'' ( ; originally the ''Acela Express'' until September 2019) is Amtrak's flagship service along the Northeast Corridor (NEC) in the Northeastern United States between Washington, D.C. and Boston via 13 intermediate stops, inclu ...
File:Keisei AE series (2009) toilets.jpg, Universal access toilet of Japanese Keisei AE series
File:Shinkansen E6 interior, toilet.jpg, Wheelchair-accessible toilet of Japanese Shinkansen
The , colloquially known in English as the bullet train, is a network of high-speed railway lines in Japan. Initially, it was built to connect distant Japanese regions with Tokyo, the capital, to aid economic growth and development. Beyond l ...
( E6 Series)
See also
*
Accessible toilet
Accessible toilets are toilets that have been specially designed to better accommodate people with physical disabilities. Persons with reduced mobility find them useful, as do those with weak legs, as a higher toilet bowl makes it easier for th ...
*
Aircraft lavatory
An aircraft lavatory or plane toilet is a small room on an aircraft with a toilet and sink. They are commonplace on passenger flights except some short-haul flights. Aircraft toilets were historically chemical toilets, but many now use a vacuum f ...
References
External links
{{Toilets
Passenger rail transport
Toilets