The Public Transport Users Association (PTUA) has called for the immediate installation of toilet facilities to be installed at Box Hill railway station, the only Premium Station in Melbourne without any toilet facilities.
“Commuters have to go out of their way on a stroll through the shopping centre to find a toilet,” said Jeremy Lunn, the PTUA’s Outer-East Convenor. “For such a busy station this is a joke. It’s a disgrace and something has to be done.”
The nearest toilets to the station are located in the adjoining Centro shopping centre. These toilets are only open during trading hours and are inconveniently located for public transport commuters.
“Once the shops close, commuters have no choice but to hold on until their destination”, said Mr Lunn.
The problem stems from a poor planning decision in the 1980s, to locate the station toilets out on the Main St Mall. As a result of poor supervision in this location, these toilets were prone to vandalism and have since been permanently closed.
Mr Lunn said that a simple solution exists, by rebuilding the existing station toilets to make them accessible from within the station concourse. “This should be done immediately and vandalism would not be a problem as the toilets would be located inside the station which is staffed from first to last train.”
“Public Transport Minister Lynne Kosky needs to act quickly before more commuters burst their bladders”, Mr Lunn concluded.