Great Western Coffee Shop

RAILWAY users will be delighted to learn that the public lavatories at Worcester^s Shrub Hill station are being renovated.

Train operator London Midland is spending ^45,000 ^ a pretty penny ^ on the work.

While commending the firm for the investment, we must express astonishment that rail users have had to put up with such poor facilities at all.

In seeking planning permission for the work, London Midland reveals that ^the current toilets are prone to vandalism^.

More alarmingly, it explains that internal layouts are being changed to ^minimise risks from attack and to try and move drug-taking out of the station^.

This suggests that people using the toilets at Shrub Hill have had to endure conditions which are not only unpleasant, but at times ^ late at night, for instance ^ thoroughly disturbing.

Did it have to get this bad? Was it impossible to assign staff to the job of checking the lavatories at regular intervals? These are questions the travelling public has every right to ask.

As the cost of train fares continues to outstrip inflation, people are justified in demanding, in return for their hard-earned cash, their very best of standards on board trains... and at the station.

Should n't the press have already ben aware of the stste of those toilets?