Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the timetable is for his Department to operate trains with retention tanks, to be emptied in rail depots, to end the dumping of excrement on railways.

By 31 December 2019, all Department for Transport franchisees will have ceased the discharge of effluent onto railway tracks. This will be achieved though the modification of existing trains by fitting toilet retention tanks or by the introduction of new trains that do not discharge on to the tracks.