A cleaner on the District and Circle lines spoke of the ‘disgusting’ working conditions (Picture: Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images)

Hundreds of Tube trains are delayed every year because staff have to spend time cleaning ‘soiled’ carriages, Transport for London has revealed.

A cleaner on the District and Circle lines has spoken about the ‘disgusting’ working conditions he and his colleagues often face.

He said: ‘Sometimes it is very disgusting, especially on weekends and nights. Once, I even found a poo on the train, and you have to clean it properly.

He added that some passengers ‘don’t care about the cleaners’.


Last year there were over 800 separate incidents of trains being delayed because the trains had become unacceptably dirty.



More than a quarter of them – 221 – were on the Northern Line.

The Northern, Jubilee and Central lines together amounted for over half of all soiling incidents (Picture: Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images)

In second place was the Jubilee line with 113 incidents and Central in third with 101.

Mick Cash, general secretary of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union, blamed the ‘filth and mess’ on drunks and the Night Tube, a 24-hour service introduced in August 2016.

He said: ‘These shocking statistics show just what a dirty and disgusting job our cleaner members have to do mopping up the mess left behind by drunks on the Underground.

‘There is no question that the introduction of the night Tube has seen an increase in this sort of behaviour, which has appalling consequences for staff and passengers alike.’

Most disgusting tube lines Northern: 221

Jubilee: 113

Central: 101

Piccadilly: 90

Victoria: 75

Metropolitan: 55

District: 50

Bakerloo: 48

Circle and Hammersmith & City: 45

Waterloo & City: 3

A spokeswoman for TfL said: ‘We aim to deal with any incidents of this nature on our network as soon as possible once they are reported, with specialist staff available to undertake cleaning as required.

‘We ask all customers to consider their fellow passengers and to help us to keep the network running safely and smoothly.’

TfL also reported that thousands of London buses were soiled with vomit, urine, blood or smashed glass in 2018.

Some 14,632 such incidents took place, with some bus routes even being soiled more than twice a week.

October and December were the worst months with 1,351 and 1,349 incidents, closely followed by July with 1,291 incidents.

The number 25 bus linking east London to the inner city was found to have been the most soiled bus route.

John Murphy, regional officer of the Unite union, which represents cleaners on London buses, said: ‘If buses are soiled or fouled then that results in the bus being taken out of service, leading to longer journeys and delays.’

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