Due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, it is now required to board a TfL bus without tapping in, and barriers at many stations are open so trains are also being boarded without tapping in. TfL's Twitter account (@TfL) today (01/05/2020) referred to "monitoring the ridership data". In the absence of usual data from tapping in, what data is this referring to? How is this data being obtained? What is the data for April 2020?

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TfL Ref: FOI-0148-2021

Thank you for your request received by Transport for London (TfL) on 1^st May 2020 asking for information about ridership data on TfL services.

Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act and our information access policy.

Specifically you asked:

“Due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, it is now required to board a TfL bus without tapping in, and barriers at many stations are open so trains are also being boarded without tapping in.

TfL's Twitter account (@TfL) today (01/05/2020) referred to "monitoring the ridership data". In the absence of usual data from tapping in, what data is this referring to? How is this data being obtained? What is the data for April 2020?”

I can confirm that we hold the information you require.

We are not currently measuring travel patterns on buses because customers have been asked to enter via the middle doors and are not required to touch-in. On the London Underground we have not changed our policy on opening gates across the network, although there may be a higher number of occurrences than usual where gates are left open due to local operational decisions. However, customers on the Underground are still expected to touch in and out to complete their journey and we have not seen anything in the data to suggest that our customer behaviour has changed in that respect. We continue to apply our established processes to calculate the total volumes of patronage. In terms of the data itself, this is being periodically published online here:

https://data.london.gov.uk/dataset/public-transport-journeys-type-transport

The data is currently provided to the end of period 13 for the year 2019/2020 - i.e. to the end of March 2020. Data for future periods will be published in due course. The data for April 2020 is therefore exempt from disclosure under section 22 of the Freedom of Information Act, which applies where information is “intended for future publication” and where, in all the circumstances of the case, it is reasonable to withhold it until publication. This is a ‘qualified exemption’, meaning that its use is subject to a ‘Public Interest Test’ to determine whether it is in the greater public interest to apply the exemption and withhold the information or to release it prior to publication anyway.

In considering the public interest we recognise the expectation of openness and transparency placed on public authorities by the FOI Act. However, in this case that expectation is met through the routine, ongoing publication of the requested data. We therefore believe that it is reasonable to apply the exemption in this case, and for the information to be issued in line with our planned processes and in line with our current resource priorities. This is particularly important at the current time as our Analytics team are working around the clock, including at weekends and on bank holidays, to support analysis for UK Government, London Resilience, and our own operations. This work is vital to ensure that TfL can support the essential journeys that need to be made. In the current circumstances we believe that diverting resource away from the Analytics team would cause a disproportionate and unjustified level of disruption to their critical work.

On the pandemic more generally, please note that the Government has announced a series of measures to tackle the coronavirus. It is essential for London that we continue to provide a safe transport network for essential journeys. In current circumstances, we are not able to answer FOI requests readily and we ask that you please do not make a request to us at present. Answering FOI requests will require the use of limited resources and the attention of staff who could be supporting other essential activity. In any event, please note that our response time will be affected by the current situation.

Please see the attached information sheet for details of your right to appeal as well as information on copyright and what to do if you would like to re-use any of the information we have disclosed.

Yours sincerely,

David Wells

FOI Case Officer

FOI Case Management Team

General Counsel

Transport for London

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