Poo Tube

[Adlington]

https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/en...nd-lines-revealed_uk_5cc2f7e0e4b08846403d1ef5

London Underground trains had to be delayed by at least two minutes on 801 separate occasions last year while staff cleaned up a “soiled car”.

Transport for London (TfL) classes soiling as incidents where passengers have left behind vomit, urine, blood or smashed glass. Unfortunately, both cleaning staff (and train drivers) are often faced with faeces too.

It's not better on the buses:

Figures obtained by the Press Association show that TfL buses were reported as “soiled” a total of 14,632 times in 2018.

October was the worst month for soiling on the bus network (1,351 incidents) closely followed by December (1,349 incidents) and July (1,291 incidents), the month in which England strung together a series of wins in the World Cup knockout stages.

Several bus routes had vehicles soiled on average more than twice per week.

For the curious, the source gives statistics showing which tube lines and bus routes are the dirtiest.
Yuck

 

[bramling]

https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/en...nd-lines-revealed_uk_5cc2f7e0e4b08846403d1ef5


It's not better on the buses:

For the curious, the source gives statistics showing which tube lines and bus routes are the dirtiest.
Yuck

I wouldn’t read too much into the statistics, they merely show instances where a service delay has resulted. Whilst this gives a flavour, there will doubtless be many more instances which haven’t made these figures for whatever reason.

 

[404250]

I must remember not to pick up and eat the sweet I sometimes drop on the bus floor.

 

[Mojo]

I wouldn’t read too much into the statistics, they merely show instances where a service delay has resulted. Whilst this gives a flavour, there will doubtless be many more instances which haven’t made these figures for whatever reason.

In addition to what you say I think the title is a bit misleading, because the majority of cases are not involving “poo.”

 

[yorkie]

Agreed. It's a misleading title, and a non-story really, given that the figures include things like broken glass.

 

[bramling]

In addition to what you say I think the title is a bit misleading, because the majority of cases are not involving “poo.”

Pretty much every Night Tube train will be finding itself cleaned multiple times through the night.

The worst thing is possibly urine, as this is less obvious and thus more susceptible to someone unwittingly sitting on it. Again, very common on Night Tube.

My dogs have better toilet etiquette than many Night Tube punters, sadly.

 

[sharpley]

I saw someone cutting his toe nails on the Central line a few years ago... mid-morning as well. Some people shouldn't be allowed out the house.

 

[Adlington]

I saw someone cutting his toe nails on the Central line a few years ago... mid-morning as well.

So some other time, e.g. mid-afternoon, would be ok, wouldn't it?

 

[sharpley]

So some other time, e.g. mid-afternoon, would be ok, wouldn't it?

Of course not, what a silly thing to say. I just mentioned when it was as some of the above posts mentioned Night Tube. I've worked as a contractor on the LUL network for almost 20 years, seem plenty of dirty gits hanging around the tube in the daytime.

 

[yorkie]

So some other time, e.g. mid-afternoon, would be ok, wouldn't it?

That's clearly not what was being suggested.

 

[baz962]

I saw someone cutting his toe nails on the Central line a few years ago... mid-morning as well. Some people shouldn't be allowed out the house.

I have seen that on the national network about four times in the last year.

 

[gordonthemoron]

I saw someone cutting his toe nails on the Central line a few years ago... mid-morning as well. Some people shouldn't be allowed out the house.

perhaps there's a market for a rail based podiatrist?

 

[Mikey C]

Saw someone cutting his finger nails last Saturday on a Greenwich line Networker. He then changed seats after finishing

 

[Adlington]

Very sensibly.....

 

[londonboi]

soiled car can be anything ranging from a spillage to anythin else the headline is VERY misleading

 

[Rogmi]

In my experience, vomit was probably the most common reason for requesting cleaners. Usually on the floor, but also on the seats. Depending on how it might affect the public (slipping etc.) it used to be that the offending car was isolated and the train remained in service until a cleaner attended to the train was changed over. Policy was then changed so a car was no longer isolated and where necessary the train was detrained and out of service. Worst scenario from a driver's point of view was vomit at the driver's end of the car with the smell coming into the cab.

It was not unknown for someone to pee up against the driver's cab door, or nearby and then it would run under the door into the cab.As far as poo is concerned, whilst fairly rare, the amount that was dumped was often a lot - as if somebody had been saving it up for a few days! Middle cabs on older stock used to be a favourite dump spot.

 

[Tetchytyke]

Drunk people wee and puke. Well, I never.

People are disgusting and would be even with facilities, but the lack of toilet facilities on the tube really doesn't help. And it's worse on Night Tube with everything locked up.

 

[Adlington]

the lack of toilet facilities on the tube really doesn't help. And it's worse on Night Tube with everything locked up.

And it's even worse on buses, no facilities day or night....

 

[sprunt]

I was on a tube train that someone puked on a couple of weeks ago on a Saturday night. The cleanup operation was impressive - they used a tub of some kind of absorbent stuff that worked very quickly, and before very long at all it was as good as new.

 

[yorksrob]

Bank holiday Sunday seems to be worse for silliness than Saturday or Friday in my experience. I witnessed two separate people vomit on two separate trains yesterday evening.

 

[Starmill]

Do the figures not suggest to anyone else that they are evidence that more customer toilets should be provided at London Underground stations? This includes providing toilet facilities overnight, at times when trains are running.

Of course, there will be a need for money to refurbish or add them new to stations in many cases, and then a significant cost to organise cleaning and servicing. I would suggest that it is probably worth it though? Toilets located within ticket gates and monitored by staff are reasonably secure, even at 3am.

Obviously London Underground can't provide toilets on trains, and it would make absolutely no sense for them to, but there does seem to be a shortage of clean modern facilities at stations.

Some people might argue that this money is better spent elsewhere, and they might be right to. But I can't help but think it would reduce incidences of 'soiling' in relation to these things. Obviously broken glass and whatever else people do are separate matters.