Don’t spend a penny: Network Rail to scrap all toilet charges from April next year

Network Rail is to scrap toilet charges at all of its stations from 1 April.

In March the former chief executive of Network Rail, Mark Carne, pledged to scrap the charge at all of its stations from 2019, saying it was "quite wrong to penalise people when they are in discomfort".

Currently charges at stations in London, Leeds, Glasgow, Manchester, Liverpool and Edinburgh range from 30p to 40p.

Last year Network Rail revealed it brought in £4.8m from people spending a penny over the course of a single year, with over £900,000 of that coming from Victoria station until the fee to use its loos was ditched last December.

The announcement follows Network Rail's decision to ditch charges at Liverpool Lime Street, Manchester Piccadilly and Leeds.

A Network Rail spokesperson said: “As part of drive to make our stations more friendly, accessible and open to the people who use them every day we are making the toilets free from April. This is part of a series of improvements we’ve been making, including the introduction of water fountains, more help points, massive investments into station facilities and improvements for disabled station users."