We’ve all been there – the dreaded empty water bottle, and the hunt to fill it it up. And it’s a lot harder on a train, where you might have to buy from a trolley, the onboard shop or at a destination.
Avanti West Coast is trying something very new for trains – the installation of water refill points on its trains.
It marks a first in the United Kingdom and a first in the railway industry. The water refill points will be complemetry to access., and available for those who are travelling on any service operated by either a Pendolino (Class 390) or Evero (Class 805/807) train.
Installed on a Pendolino
Installed on an Evero
The easy-to-use dispensing points proved to be a big hit with customers in the initial trial according to Avanti, whilst also helping to reduce the amount of single-use plastic. In pre-launch operational testing, customers travelling onboard the Pendolino fleet consumed over 21k litres of water in three months, the equivalent of 42,000 standard-sized 500ml plastic water bottles.
The water for the Pendolino refill stations is provided by Wenlock Spring, based in Shropshire. The water is sourced from a protected historic spring, dating back to 1086, which is located near the famous Wenlock Edge (and not from the tanks of the train).
In Quotes
Bob Powell, Head of Inclusive Customer Experience at Avanti West Coast said:
“The water refill points are another example of how we are raising the bar for rail travel in the UK.
“With many people now carrying their own water bottle, the opportunity to refill them free of charge, is part of our responsible business commitment to build a cleaner and greener railway, and significantly reduce single use plastic onboard our services.”
Matthew Orme, Director at Wenlock Spring, said:
“We’re proud to have worked on the development of the onboard refill points with Avanti West Coast. The water refill points dispense Wenlock Spring from reuseable bottles, which are returned to us for refilling time and time again.”
A Simple Passenger Experience Win
With people carrying water bottles being a much everyday day sight, having opportunities to refill those bottles can be challenging – be it at airports (which should have them in accessible places – – filling up from a tap in the toilets doesn’t count), train stations, whilst offices have focused putting in either mixed mode taps or access to a filtered supply.
Adding trains to this mix is a natural step forward (and there have been some interesting proposals for such systems in the sky, aboard aircraft).
Like most infrastructure, it will need to be cared for – something sadly, some members of the public don’t do some days, so I’ll be interested in the long-term life of these water stations.
But it’s going to beat going to the onboard shop to get another plastic bottle of water.
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