The toilets broke on my major five-and-a-half hour train journey from London to Stirling in Scotland

A train operator is running services lasting more than five-and-a-half hours despite having no available toilets, meaning travellers have been given extra time to answer the call of nature at a station in Lancashire.

Some of Lumo’s services on the West Coast Main Line (WCML) between London Euston and Stirling in central Scotland are operating despite all onboard toilets being out of use. The FirstGroup-owned company warned about “a fault” with the toilets in a post on social media platform X on Saturday August 1.

Services have been stopping for longer at stations such as Preston - a stop frequented by passengers across the Fylde coast - to allow people to get off and use toilets on the platforms as necessary.

The 6.11am departure from London Euston on Friday, which was affected, ran with a 58-minute delay and terminated at Motherwell, North Lanarkshire. Lumo operates its West Coast services with refurbished Class 222 Meridian trains. These are also used by East Midlands Railway, which has suffered toilet faults with its fleet.

Train operators in Britain are not legally required to provide onboard toilets. The journey between London and Stirling is 417 miles.

A Lumo spokesperson said: “We have been experiencing some issues with the reliability of some of our toilet facilities onboard our West Coast services. We are working closely with Alstom to rectify the issues.”

Alstom refurbished the trains for Lumo, with the train operator also running services on the East Coast Main Line, connecting London Kings Cross with Edinburgh, Glasgow and Falkirk.

It operates on an open access basis, meaning it sets its own fares, takes on all revenue risk and receives no taxpayer-funded subsidies. It is not affected by the Government’s renationalisation of all remaining franchised train services in Britain.

The revelation comes a week after it was revealed the toilets at Preston station are among the worst in the north. The station’s facilities rank only below Manchester Victoria’s as the second worst reviewed rest rooms in the region.

Forty three per cent of the reviews of Preston’s toilets are negative, according to the study by Manchester-based digital marketing agency Dark Horse. Preston’s results are far better than Manchester Victoria, where more than two thirds of those surveyed said they would give them a miss. Manchester also clinches second spot with Piccadilly station coming in third.