[Mark Gleeson]

I took the time to visit the depot and staff in Drogheda recently and this came up.

There is nothing wrong with the design or maintenance of the toilets on the 29000. The engineering staff in Drogheda are very insistent that the toilets work and take offense to any reference that the kit is sub standard. The whole operation was very professional and runs to a very defined schedule and the reliability of trains in Dublin has massively improved since they got going in Drogheda

There are three reasons they don't work

1. Some genius wedges a beer can or other foreign object in the toilet bowl, very frequent apparently

2. The door to the toilet (on the wheelchair accessible ones) comes of the rails, again there is a hint of physical assault on the door

3. The tank fills up, the door locks itself out in that situation. However the 29k design has its tank level display out side so a full tank is easily spotted

1 and 2 are impossible to legislate for its a social issue with the lack of respect in society for everything in general by a growing minority, 3 is a fact of life when a suburban train runs a 3 hour plus service, can blame IE for that but you get the feeling if you got rid of the gangs of beer swilling youths it wouldn't be such a issue