GRIM footage has revealed how filthy the tubes are – with grime from just four seats filling a large bucket with black sludge.
Steven James has gone viral over a clip of him and his team steam-cleaning seats on a moving Northern Line tube.
The lighthearted content was intended to promote his carpet cleaning business, Mr Carpet Clean, which he has been running for seven years.
In the video, Steven and his team spray the tube seats before using a powerful vacuum to deep-clean them.
They then empty the contents into a yellow bucket, revealing black sludge and showing viewers just how filthy the tube seats are.
The Hertfordshire dad-of-five started posting cleaning videos from “high traffic areas” on his Instagram in 2020 – including a theatre.
Mr James said: “I have got quite a good following on Instagram, and they like seeing the dirty buckets and results of what we clean. The dirtier the better.
“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.”
The grandad-of-three admitted he was shocked by how many people watched and loved the video.
The company’s Instagram page alone now has more than 26k followers.
The cleaning team claimed they will be doing more videos in the future, but will not reveal where they are planning to hit next.
Mr James added: “My kids begged me to join Instagram and against all my kicking and screaming I joined in 2020.
“People enjoyed watching me work and it developed from there.
“It takes time, but before you know it you put one post out and everybody loves it and shares it. My followers just kept going up.
“It really caught me off guard. Before you knew it everybody jumped on it.
“Across all platforms, we got in excess of ten million, which is just phenomenal.
“A good reaction to any video is nice to see. It was great to know that people enjoyed what we did.”
After some discussions with TfL, Mr James decided to take down the video, which he says was in everyone’s best interests.
He said: “It is not for me to judge another organisation or company on their cleaning regime.”
A TfL spokesperson said the actions shown in the viral video were hazardous for both the cleaners and train passengers.
They added: “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.”
It comes after a woman was left stunned while viewing an “extremely dirty” three-bedroom house – but the state of the carpet was the least of her worries.
And this tube passenger was so disgusted with her filthy carriage that she cleaned it up herself – only to be confronted with horrifying results.
Source: TimeOut and TfL data
