All correspondence regarding the restricted opening of Overground
Request ID: FOI-0287-1920
Date published: 22 May 2019
You asked
I have been informed that after the rejection of the closure request for ticket offices, Overground has decided to impose restricted opening hours at a number of reprieved stations. Please send me all the correspondence regarding this decision and any reports or assessments of the impact.
We answered
TfL Ref: FOI-0287-1920
Thank you for your request received by Transport for London (TfL) on 29th April 2019 asking for information about the opening hours of ticket offices on the London Overground.
Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act and our information access policy.
Specifically you asked:
“I have been informed that after the rejection of the closure request for ticket offices, Overground has decided to impose restricted opening hours at a number of reprieved stations. Please send me all the correspondence regarding this decision and any reports or assessments of the impact.”
It is not entirely clear what you mean when you ask for “all the correspondence regarding this decision”. Does this relate only to internal correspondence between staff about decisions taken and how they were arrived at; and/or correspondence with external stakeholders about the decision, including from members of the public? Note that, at this juncture, I cannot confirm exactly what information is held in this regard, nor whether it can be located and retrieved within the costs limit for responding to FOI cases (£450, equivalent to 18 hours work).
To enable us to assist with your request, please provide a more detailed description of the information you’re seeking together with any other details you think might help us locate the information you require.
Please note that the 20 working day deadline for responding to your request will depend on when we receive satisfactory additional information to help clarify your request. If we hear nothing further from you by 7th June 2019 your case will be closed and any subsequent response will be treated as a new request.
To assist you in clarifying what information you are seeking there is various published information that you can refer to. The process of agreeing and changing ticket office opening hours is dictated by the Ticketing & Settlement Agreement:
https://www.raildeliverygroup.com/our-services/rdg-accreditation/ticketing-settlement.html
We have followed this process and a statutory consultation was conducted in Autumn 2018. Arriva Rail London sought permission to close 51 ticket offices on London Overground and consulted with all statutory consultees:
- London TravelWatch, who also held a public consultation
- Rail Delivery Group/Rail Settlement Plan
- Department for Transport For London
Proposals can be found here http://www.londontravelwatch.org.uk/documents/get_lob?id=4657&age=&field=file
London TravelWatch objected to the wholesale closure of a number of stations – those where average transactions per hour exceeded 12 at certain times of the day. However, they did not lodge an objection to some closures on the basis that suitable customer mitigations were put in place. This was discussed at a number of public London TravelWatch Board meetings:
The Rail Delivery Group and Department for Transport did not object to any of the proposed changes.
In light of London TravelWatch’s response the decision was made to provide, as a minimum, ticket office services during the weekday morning peak across all of the stations
If you have any queries or would like to discuss your request, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Yours sincerely,
David Wells
FOI Case Officer
FOI Case Management Team
General Counsel
Transport for London
Back to top
