When Sandra Lux travels by train for work, the first thing she does is stick a red and white note on the toilet door. "We clean for you. This toilet will be available again shortly. Thank you for your patience," it says in German and English.
Lux is an "en route cleaner". Her job is to ensure that an ICE train is clean and tidy, even if it has been traveling for many hundreds of kilometers. Deutsche Bahn has just doubled the number of staff nationwide.
"Caribbean" scented oil in the train toilet
Lux slips on blue gloves and begins her work. "Toilet, bars, waste bin, mirror, floor, handles" - this is the order in which the 62-year-old proceeds. At the end, she applies some "Caribbean" scented oil. "The toilets sometimes look like this and sometimes like that. It's not like it always is at home," says Lux. Of course, dirty toilets are not nice. But Lux takes it in her stride: "It's my job," she says.
Lux has been with the railroad since 1981, she says. She trained as a locomotive fitter and has now been an "en route cleaner" for 25 years. She usually works on the ICE train between Leipzig and Berlin. Twice there and twice back - that's what a normal working day looks like for her. While she cleans and collects passengers' garbage in the carriages, a total of 600 kilometers fly by outside.
