Central Line Graffiti Makes Tube Like 'Gotham City'
Cross-party appeal made for TfL to tackle the problem
Grafitti on a Central line tube carriage. Picture: Bassam Mahfouz
December 18, 2025
The Central line has been identified as one of the underground services worst hit by graffiti.
A recent City Hall meeting heard from Transport for London Commissioner Andy Lord that, along with the Bakerloo line, it was especially affected and that there had been a surge in the tagging of tube carriages recently which was costing TfL “between £10m and £11m”.
This includes the bill for investigating culprits and preventing future ‘artwork’, as well as the cleaning of the carriages themselves.
“We’ve seen quite a spike this year,” Mr Lord told the London Assembly Budget and Performance Committee.
“We’re spending between £10m and £11m on a combination of proactive investigation and prevention, as well as cleaning. The two fleets that have been most impacted are obviously the Bakerloo and the Central Line.
“We’re working very closely with the British Transport Police and our own investigation teams to identify and prevent particularly the hotspot locations where people are gaining access to the trains.”
TfL’s issues with graffiti vandals have been well documented this year, with reports first emerging in June that cleaners were removing more than 3,000 tags every week.
In a Freedom of Information response last month, TfL said staff were tirelessly working to remove “one tag on average every three minutes”.
The TfL Commissioner said the vast majority of affected trains get cleaned when they are not in service, but noted some are done internally while operating.
Ealing Central and Acton MP Rupa Huq and Bassam Mahfouz, who represents Ealing in the Greater London Assembly have both raised concerns about a surge in graffiti on the Central Line, highlighting passenger safety and the impact on the quality of London’s transport. Mr Mahfouz has called for a “zero-tolerance strategy” after noticing the increase, prompting confirmation that graffiti incidents had risen significantly. TfL has since deployed extra cleaning teams and urged passengers to report graffiti sightings.
Dr Neil Hudson, the Conservative MP for Epping Forest, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS): “It is interesting that TfL say they are spending money on graffiti. My constituents in Epping Forest are definitely not seeing any evidence of that, as the graffiti on the Central Line trains, both inside and out, is getting worse day by day.
“It feels like you are travelling in a scene from Batman in Gotham City. Again, I call on Labour and TfL to get a grip and tackle this issue, including deterrence measures like signage, CCTV and staff on trains.”
Mr Lord, who was facing questions from Conservative Assembly Member Susan Hall on the issue, urged the public not to take cleaning trains into their own hands.
Looking for Growth, a political movement, sparked headlines in June when they decided to clean Tube trains, suggesting City Hall and TfL could be doing a lot more to keep carriages free of graffiti. Future Tube cleaning sessions were discouraged by the Mayor of London at the time, however.
He told Ms Hall in July: “What TfL does – the enforcement teams – is photograph the tags to ensure there’s prosecutions. By encouraging people to clean up graffiti, it leads to fewer prosecutions because action can’t be taken as the evidence has literally been washed away.”
Mr Lord echoed a similar sentiment today, suggesting that any guerrilla cleaners could “put themselves at risk and cause inadvertent damage as well”.
“My focus is making sure that we prevent graffiti in the first place, that we work very closely with the BTP in particular and our own investigation teams, and they are making some good progress in terms of identifying individuals and groups who are serial graffiti artists,” he said.
At the same meeting, TfL Chief Finance Officer Rachel McLean also said that industrial action in early September had cost the organisation up to £25m in lost revenue this year.
Deputy Mayor for Transport Seb Dance told Assembly Members that City Hall was doing “everything we can” to avoid any future strikes in 2026. Despite these costs, however, TfL officials said they were proud to have achieved an operating surplus for the third year running.
Last week the organisation confirmed that fares on Tube trains and rail will rise by an average of 5.8 per cent, while bus and tram fares will be frozen.
Written with contributions from Kumail Jaffer - Local Democracy Reporter
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