Travel surveys

We regularly carry out various surveys in order to better understand how our customers use our network and services, to assist with transport planning, help tackle fare evasion and the efficient allocation of resources. We often engage external partners to carry out these surveys on our behalf.

Types of surveys we undertake 

TfL regularly asks for views on a range of transport issues and to have a better understanding about the needs and travel behaviours of London's diverse communities, so that we can improve the city for everyone.  Some surveys are conducted on the telephone while others can take place at stations, tram or bus stops, as well as online. During most of these surveys, we do not collect your personal data.  

One of our core activities is the London Travel Demand Survey ('LTDS'), which takes place annually. It provides information on the full range of travel in London today and covers walking and cycling as well as journeys made by public transport, cars, vans and motorbikes.  It is carried out with 8,000 randomly selected London households each year.  

We also carry out surveys about specific services such as the Elizabeth Line, Trams, Buses or the Docklands Light Railway online or in person. You may be approached by one of our researchers who may request to see the ticket you are using for travel and ask you some questions about your journey. On-service researchers may have a revenue inspection device with them, however they will not act as inspectors and will carry an ID to show they are authorised to undertake surveys on our behalf. During these surveys, no personally identifiable information is collected unless stated otherwise, and if your ticket (such as oyster card or contactless payment card) is scanned, no personal data from the card is retained.  

When you contact us, we may email you to take part in a customer satisfaction survey about your experience with Customer Services. This helps us monitor our performance, improve quality and plan for future services. 

Personal information we hold  

When providing a response to a public survey run by TfL (or on TfL's behalf), you can usually do so without providing your full name, but for certain surveys such as the LTDS, your full name, address and other personal data will be recorded by the party conducting the interview.  We may ask specific questions that may also result in the provision of additional personal data. For example, this might include: 

• Full address (for example, if we post you a hardcopy form) 
• Oyster card number (used only for statistical analysis) 
• Your age (or age group) 
• Information about your household 
• Your occupation and location of your place of work or education, as well as level of income 
• Your use of TfL services and household vehicles 
• Where you have started and ended your recent journey(s) 
• Questions relating to your gender, ethnicity, or disability. Answering these questions is voluntary and you can still respond in full to the rest of the survey without providing this information 
• Enquiries, complaints or other correspondence from you 
• Communication preferences 

Legal basis for using your information 

Under data protection legislation, TfL is only allowed to use personal information if we have a proper reason or 'legal basis' to do so.  When conducting travel surveys, we rely on the following 'legal grounds':  

• Our statutory and public functions: to undertake activities to promote and encourage safe, integrated, efficient and economic transport facilities and services, and to deliver the Mayor's Transport Strategy
• Where you have given your consent: for example, where you have agreed to take part in a survey and have provided your personal information

Sometimes we also need to collect or store information that is defined as 'special category personal data'. In respect of travel, this relates to the equality monitoring questions asked. For example, this could include (but not be limited to) information relating to your gender, health, racial or ethnic origin, sexual orientation and religious beliefs. We ask these to ensure that: 

• Our public engagement and consultation activity reaches all sections of the community (in line with our statutory duty to do so)  
• To understand possible differences in views between sections of the community (for example, to consider if the level of support for a scheme varies between age groups)  
• To gather information about the impact different disabilities may have on a person's usage of the public transport system, and 
• To improve the effectiveness of the way we communicate with all our customers

In the case of public engagement, we collect this information while relying on the following 'legal grounds': 

• Where we have your explicit consent to collect this information

We also retain this information for further use based on:  

• Archiving purposes in the public interest, scientific or historical research purposes, or statistical purposes

Obtaining and using your information 

The personal information we hold is provided by you when you respond to a TfL travel survey.  We use your personal information to administer surveys and public engagement exercises, and to evaluate and analyse any responses received. 

The responses you provide to our supplier as part of the LTDS, excluding your name and full address, are passed to Transport for London for the purposes of statistical analysis and transport planning. This data is used to plan transport services for the future. Only authorised users within TfL can access the data and may exclusively share it with trusted suppliers or London local authorities to fulfill these purposes. Academics can request access to the dataset for the purposes of scientific research and TfL will grant permission following a thorough review, ensuring that the data shared cannot directly identify the respondents and having implemented appropriate safeguards such as a confidentiality agreement. 

When participating in the LTDS, we request your contact details so we can invite you to take part in any upcoming surveys, but this is purely optional. If you did share your contact details with us but no longer wish to be contacted, please reach out to us by email. 

We will not pass your personal information on to any other organisation for marketing purposes. In addition, we do not sell or rent personal information to third parties for any purpose. 

Summary findings of the survey may be published in the form of statistical reports. Information provided in response to a survey may also be subject to publication or disclosure in accordance with requests made under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and Environmental Information Regulations 2004.  Any personal information provided in a survey will be removed prior to disclosure.  

If you choose not to provide personal information to us, you will still be able to take part in a travel survey. However, in cases where we offer an incentive or a thank you gift for taking part, you may not be able to take advantage of this if the survey is not deemed to be completed.  

Children and young people  

You shouldn't take part in one of our online surveys by yourself unless you are at least 13 years old.  If you are under 13, then you should only take part if you have your parent's or guardian's agreement.  

If you respond to an online TfL survey and there is anything you don't understand or aren't sure about, then please talk to a trusted adult (such as your parent or guardian) and ask them to help. 

If you take part in a survey in person or on the phone, we may need to record the consent of your parent or guardian.  As part of the LTDS we will ask for your parents' or guardians' consent before collecting responses from you if you are under 16. This is required under the MRS (Market Research Society) guidelines to protect children and ensure permission for interviewing children has been obtained. We obtain this consent by asking the adult's name and relationship to the child during the survey. 

Length of time we keep your information 

TfL will retain personal information in line with its data retention policies. This means that we will not hold information for longer than is necessary for the purposes we obtained it for.  

If you respond to a survey, we hold information for the following period: 

• All data gathered during the LTDS is held in full by our supplier for 12 months after the survey closes. A reduced, pseudonymised dataset is retained by TfL indefinitely, which includes all your responses except your name and address. If you participated in LTDS, your address will not be included in the sample for the following 3 years. If you refused to participate in the survey, your address is retained to ensure you are not invited in the future  
• Other survey data is kept for 2 years, unless stated otherwise

We retain your information for the following reasons:  

• To support analysis of responses and conduct research 
• To allow for processing of appeals and enquiries 
• To establish and defend any legal rights 

Keeping your information secure 

We take the privacy of our customers very seriously and a range of robust policies, processes and technical measures are in place to control and safeguard access to, and use of, personal information associated with surveys. We also publish guidance on the steps you can take to protect your personal information. 

Anyone with access to personal information held in TfL's systems is required to complete TfL's privacy and data protection training on an annual basis.   

Automated processing and profiling 

Under data protection legislation we have to let you know when we use your personal information to do something 'automatically' using our computers or other systems, or use it to make an automated decision (without human intervention) that significantly affects you.  

Neither TfL nor its survey partners use the information collected in connection with surveys to make any automated decisions regarding individuals. 

Sharing your information  

TfL has contracts with several third-party service providers to carry out survey work on TfL's behalf. 

On a case-by-case basis, we may use and share survey responses with third parties, including consultancies and academic partners, for research and analysis purposes. For example, these may be used to help plan improvements to roads and public transport, or shared with universities to conduct academic research. The datasets shared do not include your name or address, or any exact locations or addresses you have provided as part of your responses. Any other personal data that could identify you is only shared after a risk assessment has been undertaken, and appropriate measures are implemented to secure the data that is being shared.  

Overseas processing 

TfL and its survey partners may process your personal information in the UK and countries within the European Economic Area (EEA).  Any such processing will be carried out in strict accordance with UK and EU privacy legislation and the appropriate contractual safeguards which TfL has put in place.  

If you participate in LTDS, your responses are processed by our supplier Verian Group in India. Appropriate agreements are in place to protect the data subjects' rights during the international data transfers in accordance with the data protection legislation.

Your information rights 

Under data protection legislation you are entitled to ask to see any personal information that we hold about you. 

To request access to personal information held by TfL, please see our page on how to access your data. 

You also have a number of other information rights which include:  

• The right to question any information we have about you that you think is wrong or incomplete 
• The right to object to how we use your information or to ask us to delete or restrict how we use it
• In some cases, the right to receive a copy of your information in a format that you can easily re-use 
• The right to complain to the regulator - the Information Commissioner's Office 

If you have taken part in the LTDS and wish to exercise your data protection rights in relation to your responses, please email us. Please note that unless you have provided your contact details during the survey, we may not be able to identify your personal information.  

The TfL Privacy and Data Protection team considers and coordinates responses to requests and complaints from people whose personal data is processed by TfL and its subsidiary companies. You can contact the Data Protection Officer by email.  

Changes to this page 

It's likely that we'll need to update this statement from time to time, so check back here regularly to find out more. This page was first published in December 2024.