Featured Image Credit: SWNS
Topics: Travel, Health, UK News, Social Media
Joshua Nair
Footage revealing just how filthy seats on the London Underground are has done the rounds online, disgusting several people.
We've revealed that the funky patterns behind seats on public transport help to hide the copious amounts of dirt that accumulates as people head on their travels - but just how much dirt is that?
The Tube is the most popular form of travel in the English capital, carrying up to five million passenger journeys everyday, according to Transport for London (TfL).
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That's a lot of people from different industries and places sitting down on these seats.
Cleaner Steven James has been posting clips of his job, which involves cleaning 'high traffic areas', on social media, since 2020.
He aimed to promote his carpet cleaning business, Mr Carpet Clean, but has inadvertently brought attention to just how dirty seats in public areas can be.
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The father-of-five has not gone viral for a clip of his team cleaning seats on a moving Northern Line tube, as his Instagram followers were disgusted with the results.
He explains that his fans 'like seeing the dirty buckets and results' of their cleaning jobs, as he explained: “We thought of lots of very high traffic areas such as buses, cinemas, theatres, doctors surgeries etc. and decided tubes were the best.
“We do this every day but that dirt was excessive. It is definitely up there with one of the worst we have seen."
In the video, the team can be seen steam cleaning seats on the underground carriage, sucking up the dirt and dust molecules that had collected on the seats.
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It is fairly satisfying to see them work their way up and down the seats, but at the end of the clip, the dirt and water gathered in the machine is shown in a bucket.
A dark, murky, sewerage-like coloured water came pouring out in one of the most unpleasant sights you're likely to see all day.
Calling the reaction of fans to this clip 'good', James added that he never really wanted to share his work on Instagram, but is reaping the benefits of social media exposure.
However, he admitted that he had to take down the video after speaking to TfL, as he said: “It is not for me to judge another organisation or company on their cleaning regime.”
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A TfL spokesperson has since stated that the actions in the video in question was dangerous to both passengers and the cleaners involved.
They said: "Our cleaning schedule for Tube trains consists of two different levels of cleaning: pre-service cleans (daily), and a deep clean of the interior and exterior of the train around every 28 days.
“All floors and surfaces are cleaned daily on every train as part of the pre-service clean. Seats are inspected and cleaned as required during this pre-service clean, with further cleaning as part of the deep clean.”
LADbible has reached out to TfL for a comment.