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Source: ONE News -
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If you're looking for a third world experience without leaving the country try the women's toilets in the Wellington Railway Station.
The building itself is great. They've spent a bit of money tidying up the main ticketing area. I love the supermarket. I love the pigeons and the statue of Gandhi outside. But the toilets are absolutely, positively awful.
To be fair, over the last couple of years conditions have varied - from utterly disgusting, truly disgusting, filthy, so smelly you don't want to breathe, to generally grubby and unpleasant.
A year or so back I was so annoyed I made a written complaint. Nothing changed. After another visit, another written complaint. Things have improved a bit but it's still a place of last resort.
While researching another blog recently I canvassed a few other Wellingtonians. Did they travel by train? How did they find the women's toilets? The comments weren't favourable.
"They are usually filthy, no toilet paper, broken locks on the doors ... two or three toilets will be blocked and god knows what else all over the floor".
Another one: "If I was a tourist arriving in Wellington via train or bus and heading straight to the loo (as women do) they wouldn't leave a favourable impression on me." Exactly my point.
I had no way of knowing what condition the men's toilets were
but this gives us a clue.
"The men's are unbelievably bad...I'd say they're the worst
toilets I've seen in NZ".
So it's not just the women's and it's not just me. A while back, staff explained that the railway station is very busy. That's true, it is, but so is Wellington Airport and their public toilets are fine. Shopping malls are busy, so are picture theatres. They manage to keep things clean and tidy. I'm assured the railway station toilets are cleaned every two or three hours. But it's not enough. Maybe they need someone there fulltime.
KiwiRail owns the building and it's KiwiRail's job to keep the toilets clean. I'm thinking the fact the government is giving them a $750 million cash injection over the next three years, couldn't a little bit go towards a much needed upgrade?
But as their media spokesperson points out, it's not that simple. These facilities aren't just used by people catching trains. In a sense he says, they're like public toilets so KiwiRail shouldn't have to foot the whole bill. Maybe the Wellington City Council and the Wellington Regional Council could help? Both outfits have been asked, according to KiwiRail both have said no.
Maybe the mayor should drop in unannounced for a spot check. Not so much a mystery shopper but a pooper snooper. Maybe if some regional councillors were "caught short" during a visit they'd change their tune.
The thing about this issue is that everyone you speak to at the railway station agrees the toilets are dreadful. You get the feeling they're sick of fielding complaints. "One trainload of schoolkids" a man tells me "and the place is a mess". "We want to improve things, but we can't afford to upgrade them."
Why is this so important? Next year, the capital is hosting seven Rugby World Cup matches. That means thousands of rugby fans will be travelling into the city by train. After spending millions promoting rugby and an otherwise magnificent city, it would be a shame if their most lasting memory was half a dozen grubby cubicles in the heart of the capital city's railway station.
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