Woman sues railway company after wetting herself

[Linwon]

And she won, they had to pay her 200 euros

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...ain-order.html

[Adrian6970]

This doesn't surprise me at all. I'd be interested to find out what the position in the UK over this sort of thing. My 'barrack room' understanding is that cafes, pubs and places which sell food and drink are required to provide facilities for their customers on the basis that what goes in one end will eventually come out of the other. The provision of public toilets by local councils is a matter of grace not of right and has never been a statutory matter, making them an easy target when spending cuts have to be made. However I'm not sure whether the provision of toilets on trains is a right or not. They're certainly not provided on buses, other than coaches.

[Paul Tester]

Adrian,
I beleive that public buidings such as theatres, cinemas have to provide toilet facilities according to the number of persons they might contain. There have been frequent complaints by ladies that they are not adequately catered for, but no change in the regulations. I do not know the rules for bars and restuarants, but not providing toielts would soon get rid of customers. I think there are rules if they do provide toilets but none if they do not. Probably the same for railways. I can remember a protest some years ago when British Rail, as it was then, started closing Ladies toilets on smaller stations, which has now become common.
Practically, no bar would attempt to operate without customer toilets, as bursting drunks would protest by peeing on the floor etc.
Historically Railways followed their early rivals, stagecoaches, in not providing passengers with toilet facilities, but might have warned them to 'be prepared' for a long journey. When they got fed up with cleaning piss off the carraige floors, they provided toilets. This might be true for today.
My observation is that UK main-line statons seem to be trying to not provide passenger toilets by charging for their use and closing them before the station shuts.

[DeltaFoxtrot]

Places not providing facilities for the basic functions of human life should be prepared to suffer the consequences. Thus is the case for many clothing and outlet stores in my area, which do not provide public facilities, often people will go in the dressing rooms or on the floor in some poorly lit corner and use clothing or other merchandise to clean themselves up.

IMO the fine should have been much larger than 200... the only way to teach corporations and municipalities a lesson is to hit them HARD in the only place they care about, the pocket book.