Hacker News Reader

Comment by ajamesm | Hacker News Reader

Some of it is cultural. (I can't speak to their engineering practices or limitations, anyway.) Toilets aren't a given in India. They're generally available in cities. But, for example, on some locomotives, the toilet is a literal shithole cut in the floor, for you to you void directly on the tracks.

source: was tourist

relevant article picked at random: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/india-is-b...

View on HN

This is actually pretty common, worldwide. The trains in the Netherlands technically 'flush', but they flush right onto the tracks.

Yep. Thats why there are signs telling you not to use the toilet at stations.

On the other hand the streets in the Netherlands are littered with dog poo..

Same in India, there are signs and rules against such usage.

But like many such things in India, very few actually care: http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/karnataka/you-may-be-f....

Honestly it seems like a reasonable system. That kind of waste will decompose extremely quickly.

That's true, but it's also a matter of volume. Flushing a toilet every 10 miles of track sounds fine, but with enough passangers it becomes pretty gross.

In Germany, we replaced that system several decades ago, because at 160km/h+ that can become pretty risky to do.

Huh. Do they have the pretense of a commode, or is it a hole sawn into the floor?

I saw this in America in the 90s, on an Amtrack train from Seattle to Los Angeles. When I went to flush, I could see the railroad ties flashing by under the toilet. The staff locked the washroom doors when we entered cities.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com