PDF copies of all bus service changes which have appeared on our website between 2012 and 2017
Request ID: FOI-0521-2122 Date published: 05 July 2021
You asked
I would be grateful if you could forward me PDF copies of the lists of bus service changes that appeared on TfL website from 2012 (or however far back copies go) until June 2017 please. They were produced, I believe, every two to three weeks. A sample copy that I downloaded from your website a few years ago is attached.
We answered
TfL Ref 0521-21/22
Thank you for your request received by Transport for London (TfL) on 14 June 2021 asking for information about historical bus service changes pages from our website. Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act and our information access policy. You asked for: PDF copies of the lists of bus service changes that appeared on TfL website from 2012 (or however far back copies go) until June 2017 please. They were produced, I believe, every two to three weeks. A sample copy that I downloaded from your website a few years ago is attached.
Due to several reorganisations of the departments which used to produce the documents you are requesting, along with the length of time which has passed since the documents were produced, it is not possible to provide the information you have requested within the cost limit as set out in section 12 of the FOI Act. Under section 12, a public authority such as TfL is not required to respond to a request if it would cost more than the £450 limit to determine if the information is held, and to then locate, retrieve or extract that information from elsewhere. This is calculated at a rate of £25 per hour, equivalent to 18 hours work. Therefore the time and resource it would take to locate, identify and extract the information you have requested would exceed the prescribed appropriate limit.
To explain further, in 2013 we were using a different older version of our current management system. When the upgraded system was implemented, not all the documents held on the previous system were transferred over and it is quite possible that some may have been deleted during the transfer. The filenames would also have changed which would make the documents more difficult to locate.
However during our searches, we have located a similar FOI request made in September 2018 whereby the attached files were provided which contains details of some of the bus service changes covering the period of your request. Unfortunately, I have been unable to confirm if the information and the more recent summaries appeared on our website but it is likely that they did as they appear to be in a similar format to the one you attached to your request and the file titles also contains the word ‘published’.
When the previous response was issued the following information was provided with the data:
All files are the fortnightly summary (the exact title changed in January 2018), except prior to 30 April 2016 for which we’ve included a summary document which covers changes between May 2008 and June 2016. We no longer publish a similar multi-year summary and we don’t have the summaries prior to 30 April 2016. Please note the following:
Each summary guide is given the following naming structure in the zip files: document title, year, month, sequential reference issue for that month, date range, date published in bracketed six digit format.
Since each document in most or all cases overlaps both previous and future editions, the majority of service changes will be listed more than once.
Changes have been made overtime to the design, content and criteria of changes for inclusion. For example, during 2017 temporary changes were no longer listed since the main purpose of this publication is to list the permanent changes to our bus network. Any changes to bus operating company are no longer included as it was deemed to give little value to overall content.
Occasionally errors occur such as a service change omitted in error from a previous edition. Changes listed retrospectively are generally only listed once and have not been added in a later edition published at the time when the actual service change occurred.
I am sorry that we are not able to assist further with exactly the information you have requested.
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
Sara Thomas FOI Case Management Team General Counsel Transport for London
