This Is How Much Money Train Station Toilets Make

At some point or another you've probably unwillingly handed over 20 or 30p for the pleasure of having a shit in a train station toilet.

I am one of those mugs.

I commute to work five days out of seven - and because my bowels and bladder think it's okay to play dastardly tricks on me - I end up paying 30p for the privilege of going to Lime Street station's toilets on at least four of those days.

I worked out that on average it costs me around £1.20 per week, £4.80 per month, and a massive £57.60 per year.

Because I'm forking over a ridiculous amount for something that should probably be free, I wondered how much money British train station toilets make off all of us.

It's a shit ton - literally.

Figures from September of last year - revealed by Network Rail - showed that over the past three financial years London Victoria is raking in a massive £2,300,511 off people's piss and feces.

London Euston, London King's Cross, London Paddington, Manchester Piccadilly and London Liverpool St all crossed the £1million mark, bringing in £1,828,110, £1,394,795, £1,172,740, £1,115,677 and £1,007,414 respectively.

Edinburgh Waverley fell short of the million mark, pocketing £752,194 from it's toilets, while Birmingham New Street wasn't far behind with £702,533.

Just crossing the £600,000 milestone, London Charing Cross made £653,721 and Glasgow Central brought in £601,478.

Leeds, which presumably rakes in a lot of toilet money from pissed up students bursting for a piss, made £544,976 over the last three years. Liverpool Lime Street made £402,680 - £57 of which is mine from the past year.

A spokesperson for Network Rail said: "Network Rail operates the biggest and busiest stations in Britain. Toilet facilities are available at all these stations and are open to everyone, not just rail users. The small charge we make for using the public toilet facilities in our stations helps to maintain them, ensures they are fully staffed and prevents misuse such as vandalism and other anti-social behaviour. Any profit from station toilets is reinvested in the railway and passenger facilities."

The money is spent on upkeep of the stations and the maintenance of toilets, which is for our benefit really. So on the contrary to what you may believe, you're not just being charged for the sake of it.

Mark McGowan

Mark is a journalist at LADbible, who joined in 2015 after a year as a freelance writer. In the past he blogged for independent football fan channel Redmen TV, after graduating from Staffordshire University with degrees in journalism and English literature. He has worked on campaigns such as UOKM8? and IIOC.