Great Western Coffee Shop

On my way back from Stockport to Bristol (well Newport then a bus) on the Marches line on Saturday evening I needed to use the bathroom after Shrewsbury. Both of them on the ATW 2 carriage 175 seemed to be locked. After waiting there a few minutes the guard came past and I asked him if there was a problem. he then told me they were locked because ''there's too many fare dodgers around here''. He then kindly unlocked one for me. It seems though that he kept them locked out of use and only opened them on demand. He was up and down a fair bit in his keenness to get fare dodgers so you could ask him, but has anyone come across this kind of thing before? I've never seen it on any FGW services or anywhere else.

I'm quite happy for fare dodgers to be harrassed but that seems a tad extreme to me...

Sounds to me like he was taking the p***

sorry... I'll get me coat

On the Greenford's - where very few people bother with tickets if they're travelling on journeys between West Ealing and South Greenford, it's not uncommon to lock up the toilet. Not only is it a hotspot for vandalism, as it's not covered by the CCTV, it is also a good place to try and hide - not that there are ticket checks that often. On a short journey like that I don't see a problem - any journey of any length is a different matter and the Guard could at least announce why they are closed and tell people that he will open them on request. That way it doesn't look as bad.

Should install ticket barriers to enter the toilet  :D

I've seen this happen as well on the rural Heart of Wales line. It may be a new way to prevent fare dodging even though it is extreme. At least the conductors dounlock the toilets when requested and they are easier to speak to as they are more of a visible presence I find than other TOCs. This is probably due to smaller trains and un-manned stations though so they have to be avaiable I guess

ok - I use that line a LOT

Not as often as FGW cotswolds but enough to be a regular

That excuse seems to be bunkum

Half the time if its out of hours they never come out of their guards van - I think I posted on here about my attempt to roust an ATW guard once....

I have not seen that many incidents of dodging but hat I would say.....

And this is just observation

The trains do not seem to be able to cope with the toileting of people on 4-6 hour journeys.  Especially as I'm not sure they are cleaned out at each end.


Half the time, there are toilets locked out of use - but I think that to keep them working

On occasions working out of fare dodger hotspots I've locked the toilet out of use on the platform, theoretically the punters should be using it anyway as they weren't fitted with retention tanks. Once I'd done a full sweep of tickets I'd unlock it and then just keep a sharp eye on where people were getting on. Not that easy on a long train I'll admit but on a 2 car sprinter it seemed to do the job.