In message , at 09:41:43 on Mon, 29
Nov 2010, Roy Badami remarked:

It's a long standing tradition on the railways - I'm utterly astonished
you didn't know that.

I'm genuinely surprised - I've never noticed such a facility at any
station I use.

It was more common in the past - often (as another posting about London
Bridge suggests) a small "Ladies Waiting Room" off of which the Ladies
Toilets are situated (whereas the Gents would be straight off the
platform).

Assuming that it's supposed to be safer for women travelling alone, or
something like that, then I don't see how that's actually going to
work in practice without staff to enforce it -- in which case it's
actually the presence of staff that makes the platform safer, and not
the single sex waiting room.

It's not going to stop an axe-murderer rushing in and doing his worst,
but there's quite a bit of social pressure for men not to use the Ladies
Waiting Room - much the same as not using the ladies toilets.

As for sex discrimination, is it against the law to purport to stop
a man using the Ladies toilet, and how is that enforced?

Well, they'd normally provide a gents toilet as well. If there was a
men-only waiting room provided in addition to a women-only waiting
room, that would be another matter.

What about stations where the ladies toilet is available and the gents
is locked? Is it *illegal* to suggest that the only available toilet is
"Ladies Only"?

ps How many Unisex toilets are there on UK platforms? Obviously the ones
on trains are, and the freestanding coin-operated ones, but what about
conventional loos? The only one I recall was in use at the Betjemen Arms
at St Pancras during the short period between when it opened and when
they'd finished building separate toilets.
--
Roland Perry