Transport -
London Underground
During
the Autumn of 2000, a team of scientists at the
Department of Forensics at University College
London removed a row of passenger seats from a
Central Line tube carriage for analysis into
cleanliness. Despite London Underground's claim
that the interior of their trains are cleaned on
a regular basis, the scientists made some
alarming discoveries. The analysis was broken
down and on the surface of the seats they found:
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. When the seats
were taken apart, they found the remains of six
mice, two large rats and one previously unheard
of fungus.
It is estimated that by holding one of the
armrests, you are transferring, to your body, the
natural oils and sweat from as many as 400
different people. It is estimated that it is
generally healthier to smoke five cigarettes a
day than to travel for one hour a day on the
London Underground. It is far more hygienic to
wipe your hand on the inside of a recently
flushed toilet bowl before eating, than to wipe
your hand on a London Underground seat before
eating.
It is estimated that, within London, more
sick-days are taken off work because of bugs
picked up whilst travelling on the London
Underground than for any other reason (including
alcohol).
During
August, heavy rain trapped thousands of Tube
travellers underground in sweat-box trains which
are as unreliable as they are filthy and daily,
hundreds of thousands more commuters face misery
on severely overcrowded, late-running trains. The
London Underground in summer, is (literally) not
fit for animals. EU rules regarding the transport
of live animals require minimums of space and
maximums of temperature which are positively
luxurious in comparison to the Central line in
August. The law says that the temperature in a
cattle truck must not exceed 30C. Central line
trains have been known to reach 32.5C on a
regular basis. This summer, measurements of 32C,
31C and 30.5C have been recorded on the
Piccadilly, Jubilee and Northern lines
respectively. Animals weighing 50kg must be
allocated a minimum space of between .3 and .4
square metres.
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