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The train toilet that smells 'like space'

The Local Austria
The Local Austria - [email protected]
The train toilet that smells 'like space'
The mountain landscape design. Photo: APA/ÖBB/Zenger

Austria’s national railway ÖBB is giving 250 of its commuter trains a facelift - with new toilets that will be decorated with mountain, ocean, space or lemon tree themes and have an “associated fragrance”.

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There has been some speculation as to what space might smell like.

Klaus Garstenauer, head of local and regional travel at ÖBB, said the new toilet design was a "significant event".

He added that passengers had made it clear in their feedback that the cleanliness and appearance of train toilets was important to them.

The ÖBB is currently carrying out a survey to see which of the four designs are most popular.

By the end of the year 12 trains will have been updated and by the end of 2016 all 250 commuter trains will have fancy new scented toilets.

The older, blue city express trains (S-Bahn) will not get the same treatment as their toilets are “too small” Garstenauer said.

He added that the aim was that 95 percent of all ÖBB train toilets should be fully functional and if not, they would be repaired within two days. “That may sound like a long time but all of our trains are very busy and sometimes don’t return to base every day,” he said.

According to ÖBB statistics a train toilet is flushed around 60,000 times a day - that’s around 1.8 million flushes a month.  

The lemon tree themed design. Photo: ÖBB

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