Britain's railway system might best be described as beleaguered.
If you live in the North, then good luck getting a train on Northern Rail; if you live in London then you might remember the theoretical concept of a Southern Rail timetable and now it seems passengers in the West Country have had to put up with the smell of steaming dog shite on their journey.
At least, that was the case for passengers on Florence Beasley's train from London to Devon on Sunday. Florence was heading home to Newton Abbot in the South West when a dog with diarrhoea did its dirty sinful business on the train - and staff did absolutely nothing to clean it up.
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"This happened on my train home today," she wrote after the event on Facebook.
"He had an explosive bottom. He wasn't embarrassed. He admired his work for several hours after that. 0/10 bowel control. 13/10 would not like to sit near this for four hours again."
Florence later lodged an official letter with Great Western Railways, writing: "Within 20 minutes of departing a dog had explosive diarrhoea in the aisle. The train was full and there were no staff in sight.
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"The owner stayed at the scene to try and warn people not to step in it.
"After five minutes of me knocking on the staff door, as the cafe was closed, someone finally answered and didn't attempt to give anything to clean up or cover with.
"He said he'd be up in a minute to check the situation. Seventy-five minutes later, when we got into Bristol, the train staff appeared and said there were no staff to clean it up.
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"It is utterly appalling that we were made to endure these conditions and ignored by train staff."
Speaking after the event, Florence added that she 'mostly felt sorry for the owner'.
"The staff weren't willing to give anything to help him clean up which he would have done had he had cleaning products," she told the Metro.
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"A few bits of blue roll was all they gave us, but having the windows open on the doors made it windy, which meant the blue roll was travelling with poo stuck to it, so we got the train magazines to weigh it down.
"It was just appalling they didn't have anything on board for that kind of thing. I'm pretty sure had it been a baby or a person they would have cleaned it or at least given products.
"He [the dog's owner] was very embarrassed but I chatted to him a little and told him not to worry. It doesn't make a difference if it's a dog or a baby."
Great Western Railways were contacted and said in a statement that they were 'aware of this incident', adding the company has ]apologised to customers affected'.
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The statement continued: "Staff on board moved customers away from the immediate affected area as soon as they were made aware, and did all they could while waiting for specialist equipment to become available."
Featured Image Credit: Deadline News