Graffiti on Tube leaves carriages looking like ‘New York subway in the 1980s’

Londoners say more graffiti has appeared on the Central line Tube carriages in recent months.

Passengers on the London Underground claim there has been a rise in graffiti on the Central line, with tags appearing on carriage interior walls and doors.

One passenger on Reddit made the unflattering comparison between the Central line and the New York Subway in the 1980s, when the US city’s underground system was infamous for graffiti-covered trains and crime.

Footage appears to show carriage after carriage sprayed with colourful graffiti also on the outside of some trains.

One frustrated commuter wrote on X: ‘Becoming really sick of commuting daily on the Central Line. It’s filthy and constantly covered in graffiti.

‘Commuters all deserve better. Sort it out.’

Another passenger said he saw graffiti on Bakerloo line trains too which ‘makes for a poor journey experience.’

One daily commuter told Metro that the situation last month ‘has gotten dreadfully bad in the past few weeks.’

Bassam Mahfouz, a London Assembly Member for Ealing and Hillingdon, told Metro it isn’t ‘a tag here or there’ but it now affects entire carriages in some cases.

‘It is a complete eyesore,’ he said.

‘You wouldn’t expect that sort of thing in London.’

He said he contacted Transport for London about the graffiti on the Central line and was told that ‘additional teams have been introduced on site’ and that TfL is ‘determined to remove all graffiti attacks and maintain high service standards.’

Extra cleaning teams are working at the Central line depots in Hainault and Ruislip and at the Bakerloo line Stonebridge Park depot, Metro understands.

He said the graffiti being dealt with is ‘positive news,’ but he said ‘we have to have a zero tolerance approach to graffiti’ and that tags are being removed as quickly as possible.

‘We need to make sure there is a zero tolerance approach, because that is the way to tackle graffiti.

He continued: ‘They get off doing the graffiti there and everyone sees it.

‘And if it is removed within a reasonable period of time, then that minimises the number of people who see it and therefore, there is no point putting even the sliver of effort to my artwork if it’s not going to be seen, and I’ll move somewhere else.

‘It has an impact on how safe people feel on the Tube network and on Londoners’ pockets because of the cost of dealing with the graffiti.

‘We need to tackle the scourge of graffiti and in order to do that effectively, we need to make sure we have that zero tolerance approach.

He said that if graffiti was dealt with within ’24 hours’ it would discourage further appearances and to make sure it is ‘nipped in the bud.’

Last year, some of the new Piccadilly line carriages were vandalised before they entered service.

The shiny, new trains with air conditioning were pictured with three spray-painted tags.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.