WEEKEND train travel can be a health hazard for more reasons than one would expect.

Passenger comfort must be a priority for planners who decide what train to use on long distance journeys.

Toilets on some trains are simply non-existent, but to have to travel for two to three hours north or west of Brisbane, to or from the Sunshine Coast or Ipswich, especially on weekends, highlights the need for toilets on trains.

It is even more crucial, considering the closure of facilities at stations including Goodna and other outer centres.

On weekends, stations away from the capital which close up their amenities are a disgrace and forget that the human body has a clock of its own.

The Translink bureaucrats in their lofty air-conditioned towers, who decide which train goes where, surely could empathise with long distance travellers on our public transport.

It is only common sense to provide facilities for travellers who endure our slow journey to the city and back as it is, without having the dilemma of no amenities.

After travelling on a Nambour to Ipswich train on a weekend, it was rather a challenge, to say the least, when arriving at Landsborough to find the toilet locked as well as office closed.

It is a three-hour direct trip.

How disastrous is it when families travel to Brisbane for weekend activities only to discover nowhere to relieve themselves.

Children usually don't plan ahead and cannot hold out for the two hours from Nambour or Ipswich, or the length of the time it takes for the northern and western line train trips.

The elderly also have difficulties with incontinence and should not have to endure discomfort for up to two hours. It is a disgrace and part and parcel of being treated like second-class citizens in Ipswich and outer suburbs.

E. ROWE Marcoola

OPINION: Letters to the Editor

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