TRAIN passengers will be able to spend a penny while enjoying a view of Oxford’s Botanic Garden.

A new quirky toilet design is being rolled out across Chiltern Railways trains to give passengers a view of the Oxford University garden when they answer the call of nature while travelling.

The train operator ran a competition asking passengers to come up with an attraction they believed best represented the city, to feature in toilets on its carriages.

And after considering various attractions, train bosses decided the country’s oldest botanic garden would provide the decor for the toilets.

Garden director Stephen Harris said: “We were extremely surprised but very pleased that people thought about us.

“We have provided them with all sorts of imagery and the designs try to bring together the different parts of the garden to give it a more modern feel.

“With a garden this size it can be very difficult to identify what is the single thing, so we have included imagery of the archway, looking towards Magdalen Tower, the glass houses and the giant water lily.”

The garden was founded in 1621 as a physic garden growing plants for medicinal research but today contains more than 8,000 different plant species in its four-and-a-half acres.

Olivia Singh, who works at the garden, said: “I think this is a very memorable way of making passengers travelling to Oxford aware of the University of Oxford Botanic Garden.”

It was selected as part of the Inspiration Station initiative, which aims to showcase “hidden gem” attractions along Chiltern Railways routes.

Some trains already feature Compton Verney in Warwickshire and the John Soane Museum in London.

It is hoped the toilets will be ready for the launch of the new Oxford Parkway station at Water Eaton, near Kidlington.

The first train will roll out of the new station at 7.36am on October 26 and will arrive at London Marylebone just 56 minutes later.

It is part of a £130m investment from Chiltern Railways and the first project between a major British city and the capital for more than 100 years.

Mr Harris feels the new toilet design will encourage more people to visit the Botanic Garden.

He added: “We have been trying to increase our reach of the public with the garden and the profile is something we have been working on over the past five to six years because we are quite independent.”

Thomas Ableman, commercial director at Chiltern Railways, said: “It was wonderful to receive such a wide range of suggestions.”