Stomach-churning footage of brown sludge shows how dirty tube seats really are

Stomach-churning footage has been shared showing a thick brown sludge being removed as seats are cleaned on the in London.

The grim footage was taken by Steven James whose team decided to see how dirty were four seats on the and it has now gone . In the video, the seats on the moving train are first sprayed and then a vacuum is used to deep-clean.

The contents are then poured into a yellow bucket and viewers can see the horrible sludge showing just how dirty are the tube seats used by millions of people. Steven, 55, from Hertfordshire, has been posting videos for several years in areas which are likely to pick up a lot of dirt and he admits that the tube is as filthy as it gets.

READ MORE:

The lighthearted content is intended to promote his carpet cleaning business, Mr Carpet Clean, which he has been running for seven years. The dad-of-five said: "I have got quite a good following on , 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."

He says he was really shocked by how many people watched and loved the video. "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," he said.

"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."

But after a discussion with Transport for London, Mr James agreed 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 has said that the actions taken in this viral video were dangerous to the cleaners and train passengers. 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."