All trains and stations must have toilets, including regional Sprinter trains and small stations, the public transport ombudsman has said.

Ombudsman Annemarie den Toom says travellers’ complaints about the lack of facilities prompted the call. ‘The elderly and disabled in particular are duped if they can’t get to a toilet in time. If you have to go, you have to go,’ she told the Telegraaf.

Freek Bos of travellers’ organisation Rover, supports the initiative. ‘Some people avoid travel if they know the trains in question don’t have a toilet. (..) If you travel by car there is a service station every 20 kilometers. And that’s how it should be,’ the paper quotes him as saying.

In a reaction, NS rail said it will follow up on the ombudsman’s recommendations. ‘We agree with the people who have criticised the NS and will try and solve the problem, both in trains and at stations. All new trains have toilets and we will find solutions for the stations,’ a spokesman for the NS told the paper.