Fury as passengers kicked off train and service cancelled because of 'wrong kind of graffiti'

Halted: the incident happened as Southern Rail, which is owned by Govia Thameslink Railway, saw services hit by fresh strike action
John Stillwell/PA

The company at the centre of the Southern Rail dispute was savaged by commuters today after throwing hundreds of passengers off a train because “the wrong kind of graffiti” was daubed on the side of a carriage.

A packed Thameslink St Albans to Wimbledon service was abruptly terminated at Blackfriars after guards found the “sexually offensive” writing on the outside.

The franchise’s owner Govia Thameslink Railway also runs Southern, which has axed hundreds of services in recent months amid an industrial dispute with staff.

Talks aimed at preventing fresh strike action on Southern services today broke down after just 40 minutes.

Thameslink today defended the “extremely unusual” cancellation of a functioning and staffed train on Monday morning, saying it was terminated so the words “would not cause further offence”.

The row comes as commuters in the capital today faced another day of mass delays and cancellations in the second day of a 72-hour strike by Southern staff over a dispute with conductors.

Commuters called the decision to halt the service “a joke” after complaining of late or cancelled trains for months.

Child nurse Laura Bufton, 31, of St Albans, saw the graffiti before boarding but said it was illegible.

She added: “I couldn’t make out what it said and I wasn’t offended by it at all. This is completely crazy. Why cancel a perfectly working train and inconvenience so many people on the off-chance someone might be offended?

“I’m sure people would prefer to get to work with offensive slogans on a train than have it cancelled.

“At Blackfriars the conductor said the termination was due to ‘unforeseen circumstances’. There were a lot of people and most were frustrated. One lady sitting opposite me was using some swear words. I sent Thameslink a Twitter message because I thought it was a pathetic excuse. I guess they have finally, truly lost the plot.”

Another commuter told the Standard: “We’ve had trains cancelled in the past due to the wrong kind of leaves on the track. Now it seems we have the wrong kind of graffiti. It’s ridiculous.” One passenger said: “The driver told me, ‘Really sorry but apparently we have been informed there is graffiti on the outside of one of the carriages and it may cause offence’.”

Thameslink said the train was taken out of service due to the large amount of graffiti reported, including a “disgusting” sexually offensive slogan painted below two large windows.

The cost to remove the graffiti using a chemical washer was £5,000.

It emerged today this is at least the sixth time a GTR service has been axed in the capital because of offensive graffiti in the past three months.

Commuter Andy Stubbs said his Thameslink service was cancelled on July 26 because of graffiti. Southern also cancelled services from Wallington to Clapham Junction and Streatham Common to Victoria due to vandalism.

Mr Stubbs said: “A train driver told me the trains are taken out of service if the graffiti is racist, sexist, offensive or mentions certain body parts. Personally I’d rather they kept the trains in service and got people to work on time and sorted the problem out later.”

Thameslink has previously tweeted: “We can’t drive around all day with the 6ft F-word emblazoned on a train.”

A spokesman added: "Whilst we apologise to the passengers affected, our policy of removing trains from service when covered with graffiti, including offensive material, as this one was, is absolutely the right one.

"Graffiti vandals seek maximum exposure for their selfish activity, and all the evidence shows that our zero tolerance approach is the most effective way to reduce graffiti in the long-term."

Network Rail estimates that it costs at least £5 million per year to clean up graffiti, not including the loss of revenue or delays caused to the service.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in