A VIEW FROM THE P WAY

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: july/august 2015 :: RMTnews 22 H uman excrement dropped from trains straight onto railway infrastructure has caused outrage for many years in this country. There is potential for staff and the public to catch untold viruses from airborne waste and other fluids emitted by passing trains. The dumping of raw sewage is not a new phenomenon and comes as no surprise to rail workers. Yet when the question is posed to the general public about sewage on the railways the majority can’t believe this dreadful practice exists. What about government ministers? Has the government been keeping it under wraps? What is being done about it? And what are other countries doing to solve this problem? The problem with on-board toilets is where to store the waste or the depositing of the waste elsewhere. The first toilets built were crude to say the least given some of their names. The drop chute toilet as the name suggests drops the waste down the chute and onto the tracks, also the Hopper toilet was the same, it worked like a Hopper train used for grain distribution. In fact the earliest recorded literature on the solution to depositing waste was in 1915. This method involved on-board staff disabling the flushing mechanism whilst travelling through cities, but once passed through the city the waste was dumped onto the track again. Track workers operate in a potentially dangerous environment. Yet while other hazards are risk assessed by competent persons and the hierarchy within the company one hazard, human waste, is widely ignored. This is despite the fact that rail travel now is booming and more and more money is spent on upgrading infrastructure, platforms and on the business itself. More passengers and more rolling stock equals more sewage and waste products dumped on the track. In particular parts of the country, waste is often ankle deep and before any work takes place this has to be removed. Let us not forget the passage of trains at high speed. Track side staff and in some cases members of the public are regularly sprayed with fluids from passing high speed trains, this act surely cannot be tolerated much longer as the potential health risks are monumental. Each year rail workers will at some stage suffer from the effects of coming into contact with sewage. The majority of illnesses are small like upset stomachs, gastroenteritis and just feeling unwell in general but what about the serious diseases? I believe there may be a significant under reporting of diseases linked to sewage because workers fail to recognise the link between ill health and the work they carry out. There are serious waterborne A VIEW FROM THE P-WAY David Nightingale looks at the problem of sewage on the tracks and how India might have the solution