Train seats are over six times filthier than toilets
It’s been revealed that Tube seats often contain more germs than a TOILET SEAT
THOSE visiting London will often complain about the hustle and bustle that is commuting via the Tube.
Overcrowded stations, rubbish left on seats, bolshie fellow passengers and those who snack on stinky foods are all enough to send anyone bonkers.
But it’s now been revealed that Tube seats often contain more germs than a TOILET SEAT.
A study has found that the Northern line trumps all others when it comes to being London's dirtiest Tube lines – but many others don’t fare much better in the germ stakes.
Researcher from online doctor firm Dr. Ed wanted to test what bacteria is left behind by the thousands of commuters each day.
And it seems that you may want to anti-bac your hands as soon as you get home.
The researchers swabbed 60 surfaces on the capital's 10 busiest tube lines before sending away the samples to be tested in an independent lab.
They assessed bacteria levels on the network by measuring colony-forming units (CFU) - the number of bacteria cells that thrive per 10 centimetres.
The Northern Line was found to have a whopping three times more germs than the next dirtiest Tube line.
The Central Line came in second place – and was also found to have the dirtiest seats.
The Bakerloo Line followed in third place.
Coming in fourth position was the Waterloo and City Line, followed by the DLR, the Victoria Line and the Jubilee Line.
However, the Hammersmith and City Line was found to be the least germy route tested.
But it wasn’t just the trains that were tested.
The report also swapped the surfaces in ten busy stations.
It was found that hand rails at Bank, Monument, Liverpool Street and Oxford Circus were the worst for germs, while the touch screen machines at Stratford were the grimiest.
The dirtiest station overall was Stratford - with Monument and Bank coming in second.
This latest research follows a previous study that found the surface of Tube seats were contaminated with four types of hair sample (human, mouse, rat, dog), seven types of insect (mostly fleas, mostly alive), vomit originating from at least nine separate people, human urine originating from at least four separate people, human excrement, rodent excrement and human semen.
And when the seats were taken apart it got even worse, with the remains of six mice, the remains of two large rats and one previously unheard of fungus being found.
Seems like we'd rather stand after all...
View the full report by Dr. Ed here.