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Re:A Parable by onemorepassword on Wednesday January 30, 2013 @10:51AM (#5139962)
Ironically, this kind of "cost-savings" is exactly what the Netherlands railways have been doing over the years (only by closing half the existing toilets). However, they ended up with the ultimate solution: ordering new trains without any toilets.

No joke, they even came up with the brilliant idea of handing out plastic bags for "emergencies"...

Re:A Parable by pavel_lishin on Wednesday January 30, 2013 @11:12AM (#5140077)
I hope the plastic bags came pre-stamped, and with the railway's complaint department address printed on them.
Re:A Parable by digitalengineer on Wednesday January 30, 2013 @01:58PM (#5141053)
Correct! Here's an image of the so called 'Travel John' http://bit.ly/Vs9W2G (Google Images). There is still a bit of a problem for the ladies or 'number 2'.
Re:A Parable by jules on Wednesday January 30, 2013 @04:20PM (#5141828)
As far as I remember from the news, each toilet in the NS trains costs more than €1 million, which is why they decided not to install any. Perhaps they should fix that number, instead of removing the toilets altogether. Note that a train toilet is nothing special, the waste disposal is just an open pipe to the bottom of the train.
Re:A Parable by onemorepassword on Thursday January 31, 2013 @04:27AM (#5144196)
I would think they took into account cleaning (multiple times per day), maintenance, vandalism and loss of seating to come up with that number.

Especially the latter, since this isn't the first time they've done something insane for a few extra seats.

Putting the air intakes at the bottom of new trains (instead of on top as was the original manufacturers design) comes to mind, which lead to dozens of trains becoming unusable and needing weeks of repairs after a bit of snowfall...

Re:A Parable by shasta on Wednesday January 30, 2013 @09:49PM (#5143127)
Now they spend €150 million a year on bags.