And I don't think it would be the homeless writing the nasty letters, but the passengers who have to go to the trouble of finding change to pay.Who ever said nothing should be done? I was just making the rhetorical point that often, in our society, no good deed goes unpunished.
Wait, so now we're not going to do anything because some congressman might get a nasty letter from a homeless person about it? What's the point of providing free but disgusting restrooms anyway? I avoid the restrooms here at the station in San Antonio for the exact same reason. Nobody ever seems to clean them. You can be the very first person to enter the station right as the staff unlock the front door and immediately walk over to the restroom and still find clogged toilets and sticky floors from the night before. Does that sound like an acceptable situation to you? Maybe Amtrak could add fifty cents or whatever to each O&D ticket. Maybe the station owner(s) could reach an agreement with a bathroom attendant or two whereby they keep the place clean in exchange for the ability to solicit tips during periods of heavy use. Maybe some sort of combination or amalgamation of these and other ideas would work. Or maybe we can simply remove the public restrooms altogether. That way nobody will ever have to read another nasty letter again.Can you imagine all of the nasty letters people would send to their Congressmen if Amtrak instituted pay toilets? They would far outnumber the letters sent for dirty (but free) bathrooms.Amtrak should consider charging for the use of its bathrooms. Something like 25 or 50 cents would be enough to keep the riff raff out, and the revenue could help fund increased cleaning. I've seen this used all over Europe and it seems to work well.