TRADE UNIONISTS claimed victory today as Network Rail pledged to dump the practice of flushing human excrement onto railway tracks.

Many of Britain’s older trains have toilets which do not have effluent tanks but instead simply plop waste onto the track. Passengers are asked not to flush while the train is in a station, but track workers are still left to toil alongside the unpleasant residue.

Rail union RMT has kicked up a stink over the issue for years, arguing it is unsafe. Now the infrastructure authority has pledged in a business plan to eliminate the practice by the end of 2019.