A group of volunteers have taken it upon themselves to clean graffiti-covered Bakerloo line trains, in what their founder claims is “doing what mayor Sir Sadiq Khan can’t”.
Joe Reeve, 28, set up the group after becoming frustrated with the state of the London Underground transport system and what he sees as a broader decline.
Mr Reeve told the Standard: “I take the Bakerloo line every morning and I see someone push past the barrier.
“Then when I get down to the Tube, every single carriage is full of graffiti. It feels like no one is doing anything to make the city better.”
Mr Reeve, who also founded a policy organisation called Looking for Growth, said the volunteer effort is a way of “taking action when leadership doesn’t”.
“I’m pretty patriotic. I love London, and I think it should be the best city in the world,” he said.
“I had the option to move to the US for work, but I want to stay in the UK and see it get better.”
The clean-up group, which has no formal name, has already attracted attention and praise from frontline Transport for London staff.
“Three train drivers said thank you today, Mr Reeve added.
“One said: ‘At least someone’s doing something.’ Another driver came out and saw the clean carriage and asked who sent us — we said we’re just volunteers. A few passengers came over and thanked us too.”
.jpeg?quality=75&auto=webp&width=960)
The initiative has also become a political statement. Mr Reeves is critical of Sir Sadiq’s record and says he and his friends are acting where City Hall is failing.
“Sadiq has been mayor for a while and has said in videos he’s proud of what he’s achieved,” he said. “I — and a lot of people — feel pretty frustrated with him.”
Mr Reeve points to a range of issues from housing to public order: “There’s the housing crisis and NIMBYism (not in my backyard-ism). He could solve this problem, but he isn’t doing that. He’s blocking high-rise buildings which could actually help. Everything’s getting worse under him.”
Read More
He also criticised the state of local services: “I pay more than £500 in council tax to Lambeth Council and my bins are collected twice a month. They just increased my council tax to the maximum and reduced my bin collection to once every two weeks.”
And it’s not just the Tube that’s prompted action: “I walk over Westminster Bridge which is always full of neon music taxi bikes. It should be one of our most sacred bridges and it’s not being respected. When bikes are playing music, I flag them down and start asking them to turn the music off.”
In addition to cleaning trains, Mr Reeve has also begun confronting fare evasion and other anti-social behaviour.
“Over the last few months I’ve started challenging people when they push past the barriers. A couple of times there’s been an angry response - but sometimes, they give up because they can’t stand the awkwardness,” he said.
“I’ve even stood in front of the lift to stop someone who pushed through the barriers from going down. A TfL staff member got involved and ended up apologising to him, even though he was fare evading!”
Mr Reeve’s policy group Looking for Growth is pushing for bigger infrastructure reforms.
Last year, the group wrote a bill called the National Priority Infrastructure Bill, which would make it easier for the government to build nuclear power plants and bring down the cost of energy in the UK. He says that four of the bill’s five aims were adopted by the Labour government.
Mr Reeve says his mission is rooted in a desire to see the country succeed: “A lot of the bottom-level things that stem from lack of growth - things get dirtier, less nice, less safe.
“It’s a kind of en-shittification,” he said. “That’s what I want to stop.”
Siwan Hayward, TfL’s director of security, policing and enforcement said: “The safety of our customers and staff is our top priority.
“We are working closely with the police to prevent crime and anti-social behaviour on the network, with over 2,500 police and police community support officers and 500 TfL enforcement staff patrolling the network at all times.
“We work hard to ensure that our customers and staff feel safe when travelling on the network and continue to strengthen our capability to deter and detect fare evaders and ensure our trains and stations remain a pleasant and clean environment for passengers.”