by Peter Lazenby and Conrad Landin

SCOTLAND will flush the loo on the disgusting practice of dumping human waste on railway lines following a long-running trade union campaign.

Hundreds of British trains built as recently as the 1990s were built without “retention tanks” and the toilets still lead straight to the tracks.

But, following a meeting between rail union RMT and Scottish Transport Minister Derek MacKay, bosses and civil servants have agreed to slam the lid on the practice earlier than planned.

Now around 40 per cent of Scotrail’s fleet will have the tanks fitted by April 2016, with the rest fitted with tanks by December 2017, the union said.

RMT general secretary Mick Cash said the elimination of the “filthy, disgusting and dangerous practice” was “100 per cent down to the hard work and campaigning over several years by representatives, members and officials of RMT.

“Network Rail in Scotland are also in the process of arranging briefings to frontline maintenance staff and offering vaccinations to reduce the risk to staff from untreated human excrement which is another important development resulting from the RMT campaign,” he said.

“If real targets can be laid down for ending the scandal of sewage on our railways in Scotland then they can be achieved across the whole network.“It’s time for the train companies and the politicians to stop the excuses and get on with it.”