Granted I’ve not been on it for a good few years but I was genuinely shocked at how disgusting basically everything on the train was, the floor, seats, doors, everything was utterly caked in grime.
The photo doesn’t really give the dirt justice but I didn’t want to look like a complete weirdo taking multiple photos of used seats.
Am I just too used to the luxury of Thameslink or has the Northern Line always been this rank and I’ve just forgotten?
Genuinely think the NYC subway trains I’ve been on were cleaner.
by Bednarz
19 comments
I’m usually a Vicky Line denizen, but I have to agree. I had to use the Northern recently…and I also considered it bad enough to photograph to show my partner.
I have rarely in my life seen anything more filthy than those seats. I described them as ‘disgusting with a capital F’.
This is why I always try to stand.
And yet people disagreed with me when I said the plastic seats of the NYC subway are better, because they can just hose them down in water and other chemicals… it’s 2024, we can’t have nice things / comfortable things.
I saw someone going drilling inside their nostrils for about 8 stops before I got off, and wiping it all over the seats on Northern just last night.. I bet it was also black snot with the air pollution down there :/
I don’t disagree with you, but ‘luxury of Thameslink’?!
I hate the Thameslink trains even more because the filth isn’t caked down. Every time I sit on one of those trains, psychologically I feel like I’m sitting in a pile of other people’s crumbs. It’s so clear that they don’t bother to vacuum those thin seats either, and because they’re thin all that loose dust and dirt is clearly visible.
And there’s always gum stuck somewhere, or some massive stain on the floor.
Awful, awful trains.
£3.2 one way I pay for this privilege. TFL really should do something
TfL couldn’t give a toss. Scum and extortionate prices. Noice
In most of my commute on the tube (I tend to stand the majority of the time)
As a Brit in NYC, it’s wild to remember that tube cars have fabric seats. Nothing but easy-to-clean plastic would work for all the daily shit the Subway seats go through.
Absolutely disgusting. TFL are fucking useless at anything other than taxing motorist’s.
They just need a deep clean, if TfL had a central government subsidy like literally every single other subway system on earth, then we could afford regular deep cleaning of tube carriages.
It would probably cost less than the headline price for cleaning as you would get government savings from reduced NHS use, all the bacteria on the tube must cause issues for people.
But alas, the national fetish for austerity has meant we can’t have a functioning country.
After a gap of 30 years I rode the NL last week. I expected it to be all clean and fresh and it certainly wasn’t. Don’t know how I put up with that commute for 4 years. I wouldn’t do it now.
Non-porous surfaces for public amenities please.
Upholstered seats on the public transport system of one of the biggest cities in the world is COMPLETE MADNESS. The seats (on buses and tubes) should be made of a hard, washable, hygienic material.
That’s why you don’t put your outside clothes on your bed
All public transport is rancid.
My gf says she can’t wear anything white if she needs to take the bus or tube
Yeah people say that they would rather have these gross fabric seats than plastic ones, but the NYC subway plastic seats are actually fairly comfortable. Plus everything can be easily hosed down if need be.
Every time I sit on the tube I think about how this seat has probably had bodily fluids on it at some point in its lifetime.
Having fabric on seats is just stupid. Just use plastic. I try not to sit on most lines because of this.