Truth Social

Reports of the insects have also emerged on Southeastern’s High Speed 1 services, sparking fears of a wider spread.

Drivers discovered the pests in their cabs and on their bags.

Internal messages obtained by The Telegraph reveal that drivers refused to board affected trains and accused management of not treating the problem seriously enough.

A minimum of three services were scrapped on Friday, with further cancellations dating back to the first sighting on September 22.

One train, dubbed the “Bedbug Express” by staff, made several trips between London and Kent on Tuesday with two carriages sealed off after a driver spotted the pests at one end.

Service control logs showed how the train was allowed to keep running despite the spread.

Maintenance workers attempted to pull it from service, but controllers are thought to not have been told of the issue.

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PA

An incident log recorded that a driver refused to enter the cab of the infested train to reposition it at the depot unless “provided with a white full-body protection suit… in case any bugs transfer to themself”.

No suits were available, which left two services cancelled – including one train trapped behind the bedbug-affected unit.

Pest controllers finally arrived at the West Marina depot on Friday morning, with a van seen stationed outside the staff entrance on Cliftonville Road.

Lorraine, a local schoolteacher living opposite the depot, noticed discarded furniture outside a building labelled “train crew messroom,” saying: “That wasn’t there the other day.”

She added: “It doesn’t surprise me. They do all the cleaning here, they wash the trains on that side.”

She continued: “From what I know, they’d have to be carried in like fleas. But that’s always a risk with deliveries.”

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An RMT union spokesman said the union was “working closely with the company to deal with what is a very difficult situation and we share their concerns for passenger safety”.

Southeastern confirmed four trains had been reported as infested, with two cases verified and those units cleaned before returning to service.

It insisted the “isolated” cases of bugs were only found in cabs, not in the carriages.

Oly Turner, Southeastern’s head of drivers, said: “We have a great relationship with our drivers, who have helped hugely in cooperating with us over these isolated incidents.

“When we receive reports such as these, we check trains thoroughly before they are put back into service when given the all clear. Cases have been contained to the drivers cabs in only two of our trains and no bed bugs have been identified in areas for passengers.

“We continually carry out robust cleaning across our trains and stations, ensuring our customers and employees can travel safely and with confidence.”

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Bedbugs are small brown insects sometimes described as “nits for fully grown adults” which conceal themselves in warm crevices before emerging at night to bite, leaving spots and rashes.

Eradicating them is costly and slow, and often means infested furniture has to be thrown away.

A surge in bedbug sightings on trains three years ago, partly linked to the post-Covid travel rebound, caused widespread alarm among commuters.

The 2023 outbreak started in Paris – sparking fears the insects would make their way onto the Eurostar and across the Channel.

Local leaders called for a “national health crisis” to be declared – but when it was discovered the outbreak was less severe than thought, France was forced to roll out a public health campaign insisting that trains and hotels were safe to use.

The Guardian newspaper’s headquarters near King’s Cross recently suffered its own bedbug outbreak. Its offices needed fumigation to rid them of the insects.