Posted on 12/13/2003 8:01:07 AM PST by dighton
THE flagship Edinburgh Park rail station has been built without any toilets.
The decision to leave out loos from the £4.5 million station was today branded “unbelievable”.
But rail bosses insisted toilets were not needed at the unmanned station, which serves the Capital’s biggest business and finance park.
Lib Dem councillor Tom Ponton, who attended the opening ceremony for the station last week, said today: “I find it very hard to actually believe that having spent so much money on this facility, a simple necessity such as a toilet has been forgotten about.
“I was at the ceremony and fortunately I didn’t need to use the loo, but I would imagine, especially at this time of year, a lot of people will get off the train and immediately look for a toilet.
“Edinburgh council have never seen public toilets as a priority, however, and if they can’t put decent facilities in the city centre, I suppose it should be no surprise they can’t put them up here.”
Shadow Transport Minister Kenny MacAskill branded the lack of facilities shameful, adding that passengers had a right to expect basic facilities.
He said: “It’s downright daft in the 21st century to spend £4.5m on a state-of-the-art station but fail to build in toilets, especially when this station is both badly needed and will be so heavily used.
“For them to spend £4.5m but for us to be unable to spend a penny is not just silly but actually shameful. This wouldn’t happen on the Continent and it shouldn’t happen here.”
ScotRail, which leases the station on the western fringes of the city, insisted today the lack of toilet facilities was normal for an unmanned station.
A spokesman said many of the 336 stations across Scotland, such as Newcraighall and Brunstane, had no such facilities.
He said: “It is not really something we have had complaints about from passengers using other stations with no facilities, as most of the fleet of trains now has toilet facilities.
“Studies carried out on rail passengers a while ago showed the average person will spend seven minutes at the station and toilets just aren’t necessary.”
Robert Samson, of the Rail Passenger Committee Scotland, said it would be better if even small stations had toilet facilities. He said: “It is the standard practice at unmanned stations not to have toilet facilities, though I think it would be preferable if they were provided. An unmanned station at night can attract a lot of vandalism or drug users, however, and it is perhaps feared this is what the toilet would be used for.
“We would hope that could be countered with the use of security measures such as CCTV cameras.”
The station was funded by Edinburgh City Council and New Edinburgh Initiatives, with £1.9m provided by the Strategic Rail Authority. First Minister Jack McConnell opened the station last week, saying it would provide a “shot in the arm” for the Scottish economy.
It was originally expected to be unveiled six months ago, but a string of hitches and wrangles, including arguments between various rail industry bodies and a bitter dispute over restrictions on when work could be carried out, held up the project. Services linking Edinburgh Waverley and Haymarket with Bathgate and Dunblane will be stopping at Edinburgh Park.
Commuters will also be able to travel between the business park and Newcraighall and Brunstane.
Council leader Donald Anderson said he did not see the lack of toilets being a problem in the short term.
He said: “I don’t think that this is in any way unusual for a station of this size. I think in the long term, once this station has become properly established and its various requirements are more fully understood, we can look to make changes.”
Great logic.
While it is true that the average person does not use the restroom in any particular seven minute period, ALL average (and un-average) people use the restroom in some seven minute period of every day.
One of my favorite lines from Beavis and Butthead, "Leave it to the dumb @sses".
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