Transport union threatens strike action after legionella found in train toilets

23 August 2021, 10:22

A transport union has warned that it may go ahead with strike action after legionella was discovered in multiple London train toilets.

The Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union has prepared members to strike after seven toilets on four Thameslink trains had traces of the bacteria.

The "potentially lethal" outbreak could lead to Legionnaires' disease.

However, Thameslink has said that only low levels of legionella were found in the small number of toilets, which had since been closed off before being drained and bleached.

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RMT claimed that the company's approach to resolving the issue was "half-hearted and inadequate", calling for an urgent meeting of the company's Joint Safety Committee.

The union's general secretary Mick Lynch said: "RMT has been raising concerns for weeks now, and the latest cavalier approach from the company is pitifully inadequate and is an outright gamble with passenger and staff health.

"We have now declared a dispute and, be in no doubt, if we don't get serious action we will ballot our members and do whatever is required to end this reckless approach to a potentially lethal situation on these increasingly busy trains."

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Rob Mullen, train services director at Thameslink, said: "A very low level of legionella was found to be present during testing in a small number of our Thameslink Class 700 train toilets.

"While it is extremely unlikely this would cause any harm to passengers or colleagues, the toilets affected were immediately locked out of use.

"The trains were taken out of service and these toilets have now been drained, bleached and had their tanks completely re-filled.

"There is no recorded case of anyone, ever, having contracted legionella from a train."

The company said in a statement that, despite the low risk, they "immediately closed the affected toilets" as a precautionary measure.

"Legionella can potentially be spread through atomised water droplets in the air in enclosed spaces, but water in our toilets is gravity-fed, which makes this extremely unlikely and further lowers the already very low risk," it said.

"However, as a precaution, we immediately closed the affected toilets and took these trains out of service.

"The toilets affected have been completely drained, bleached and re-filled to rectify this situation.

"All other parts of the trains were unaffected, including our air con systems, which do not use water (they use refrigeration to cool the air).

"Therefore, as legionella spreads via water-based vapour, it is not possible for it to be present in our air con systems."