The London Underground’s carriages are subject to a rigorous schedule of cleaning, with most tube services getting a deep clean at least once a month. But some tube services are busier and get cleaned more frequently than others, meaning that some lines get dirtier.
But on which London Underground lines are you most likely to find a carriage in poor condition? Well, a recent Freedom of Information request (FOI) has the answers. The FOI revealed which lines had the most complaints to Transport for London (TfL) over the poor condition of carriages between 2023 and 2026.
And the worst offenders? The Northern and Central lines. The data found these two services made up more than half of complaints, receiving 307 and 251 respectively. This was followed by the Piccadilly line, which came in at number three with 114 complaints. The cleanest tube turned out to be the gleaming Circle line, with had only five complaints over the three years.
The TfL customer service team has logged more than a thousand complaints from their passengers about the poor condition of the Underground since 2023.
London’s dirtiest tube lines, according to TfL data
- Northern line – 307 complaints
- Central line – 251 complaints
- Piccadilly line – 114 complaints
- Bakerloo line – 107 complaints
- District line – 83 complaints
- Victoria line – 80 complaints
- Jubilee line – 80 complaints
- Metropolitan line – 60 complaints
- Circle line – 5 complaints
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