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One of London’s busiest commuter rail networks is in the grip of a graffiti epidemic after being forced to improve safety at a string of cleaning depots after the electrocution of a cleaner.

Southeastern was fined £2.5 million last year for health and safety breaches which resulted in the death of Roger Lower, who fell onto a 750-volt rail.

Sources have told the Standard that a subsequent investigation revealed potential risks at other depots across the network leading to cleaning facilities being taken out of service.

Commuters have reported an upsurge in graffiti as Southeastern implements new health and safety measures at several sites. The firm admits the problem has become “significantly worse” in the past three months with vandalism of trains more than doubling.

An insider said: “Everything has now been tightened down, as it should be, but it means a lot of the work is not getting done and that includes cleaning graffiti from trains.”

A Southeastern spokesman said staff usually remove graffiti “very quickly” but had struggled recently because of a £5 million safety upgrade being carried out at the network’s 45 depots.

They added that an inspection last year had “uncovered safety risks” at the depots, where graffiti is removed and lavatories are emptied. It is believed that the issue relates to electrical power rails which might come into contact with water during graffiti-cleaning.

Last year Southeastern and its contractor, Wettons Cleaning Services, were found guilty of breaches of the Health and Safety at Work Act after Mr Lower, 46, was killed while cleaning trains at St Leonards-on-Sea.

Guildford crown court was told equipment designed to protect workers was not in use. Southeastern was fined £2.5 million and Wettons Cleaning Services £1.1 million.

City law firm worker Paul Billington, 39, who commutes from Plumstead to Waterloo East or Cannon Street, said: “Almost every other train seems to have large daubs of graffiti.” Civil servant Paul Howarth, 42, who travels from Hither Green to Blackfriars or Charing Cross, said: “It seems to have escalated out of control… it makes the railway feel like a lawless environment.”

British Transport Police and Network Rail have increased patrols in a bid to catch graffiti offenders.

The Southeastern spokesman said: “We’ve been installing temporary safety measures at nearly half of the locations we use to service toilets and clean graffiti off trains, and Network Rail and Southeastern are installing permanent safety improvements through a joint £5 million improvement programme over the next six to nine months.”