crap on the tracks at Liverpool Street Station

There has been a terrible ongoing smell at Liverpool Street Station platforms 11 to 17 due to the emptying out of “effluent” from the on-train toilets onto the tracks in between the platforms. Crazy but true. So I tried to find out who has environmental health responsibility for Liverpool Street Station. I was referred to City of London Corporation (no help), Hackney (helpful, but not them), TfL (no), London Overground (nothing to do with them).

Eventually I got a helpful response from Customer Relations, Network Rail South East, as follows: 

Historical situation - Network Rail manage the Rail infrastructure, rather like the Highways Authority do for roads. The Train Operators operate the trains and most stations. We act on their behalf to remove refuse and litter at stations via contractors, in the case of effluent we use a specialist contractor called ‘Railscape’.

Historically human waste has been deposited on track hence the labels saying do not flush the toilets in the station. As less trains deposit on the track (they have retention tanks) and with time more people appear to use the toilets in the station. Greater Anglia have one of the largest fleets without retention tanks with more than 500 toilets that flush on to the track. Generally Train Operators have been reducing the number of such trains or converting them during the life of their franchise. Greater Anglia have a very short franchise which really precludes any major investment by them at this time. Over time all will disappear as all new trains are fitted with retention tanks as standard.

Liverpool Street Station is a Network Rail Managed Station. Most stations are leased to Train Operating companies. So Network Rail ultimately have responsibility albeit in association with the Train Operator.

Network Rail contracts the cleaners at Liverpool street who do the track cleaning.In general enforcement is carried out by the Railway Inspectorate (part of the Office of the Rail Regulator) although other parties do have powers.

Actions taken and under consideration - The situation at Liverpool Street has been something of an on-going problem. Last Christmas plastic trays were fitted to catch the effluent as we were developing problems with removal of such. We asked the Train Operator to emphasise to passengers not to use the toilets in the station. The trays filled rather more quickly than expected, as it appears that there is large scale flushing on the station. The contractor has agreed to increase the number of cleans. Arrangements were made and at the end of April we started cleans nightly. We also authorised the purchase of a larger bowser so clear more effluent and more extensive use of disinfectant. 

Longer term:

• Pay for retention tanks of the fleet. 
• Partially pay for the fleet modifications, probably the Inter City fleet as these cause the mass majority of discharge (242 toilets) and stand longer in the station. Looks like a good option.
• Lock the toilets while in the station. Not really feasible without a lot of additional staff and would result in delay
• Automatically disable the toilets while the trains are stationary. High risk of blockage would result with more complaints
• Automatically lock the toilet doors while the doors on the train are open (would have an auto release inside the cubicle). I have had this costed and we will meet with the Rolling Stock Leasing companies to discuss in 2 weeks time. This could be a good medium term solution and possibly linked with the partial fleet modifications
• Use biodegradable mats that absorb the effluent, as at Paddington, but almost as bad as the trays
• A full flushing stainless steel track system that automatically disinfects. Issues here with drainage and construction, almost as expensive as modifying the fleet with a high level of Maintenance

Just on the point that more people appear to use the on-train toilets in the station, I wonder if this would lessen if the charge (30p I think) for using the station's public toilets were reduced, and whether Network Rail any power to make this happen.