Thank you for your email received by us on 7 June 2017 asking for information about live announcements prompt cards used by drivers on train services.

Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act and our information access policy. I can confirm that we hold some of the information you require. You asked for:

anything that you give to drivers to aid them into giving live announcements on the train such as prompt cards.

If you do could I please have a copy of the prompt cards.

I can advise that scripts are issued to London Underground drivers when there are planned engineering works and consequently services are not running to their standard schedule, as shown in the attached recent example broadcast on the Piccadilly line.

London Underground train operators are able to use these 'as written', or use the copy to form their own announcements when there is travel information that customers would find useful. The locations for the messages are designed to give customers an opportunity to change their route if their usual journey would not be possible.

These messages are issued to the lines on a Thursday evening, so they can be printed and handed to train operators as they book on for duty over the weekend.

We also issue 'one-off' scripts for longer term temporary changes such as station closures. For instance, during the closure of Lancaster Gate for lift replacement work, train operators on the Central line have been making announcements at Marble Arch eastbound and Queensway westbound services to advise customers the train will not be stopping at Lancaster Gate and to continue their journey at street level from one of the adjacent stations. Due to the long term nature of the closure, these messages are posted at the tunnel mouth 'headwall' of the previous station. Recent examples are also attached.

Turning to the London Overground, drivers are not issued with ‘prompt cards’ for live train announcements, apart from ad hoc ‘disruption announcement scripts’ in the attached example. These are always different depending on the affected line and at certain times, mainly during weekend engineering works.

We also have an on-board London Overground train management system, which has the facility to make an automated announcement for a variety of information messages to the public. These messages are select by the driver depending on the live circumstances.

During training to become a TfL Rail driver, staff are advised of the following prompts:

Please remember to announce...

1) Within 30 seconds when at stand
2) Within 90 seconds when stood in a platform
3) Repeat every two minutes if the delay continues.

Unfortunately we do not hold information on prompt cards in relation to the DLR network, as this is held by the franchisee, rather than Transport For London (TfL). If you would like to contact Keolis Amey Docklands directly which is responsible for the running and maintenance of the DLR, please see their website at: http://keolisameydocklands.info/.

Please note that as a private company, Keolis Amey Docklands is not legally obliged to respond to Freedom of Information requests.

For information about all other train services, please contact the train operating companies directly via the following link to National Rail’s website as they operate independently of TfL:

http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/tocs_maps/tocs/TrainOperators.aspx

If this is not the information you are looking for, or if you are unable to access it for any reason, please do not hesitate to contact me.

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

Jasmine Howard
FOI Case Officer
Information Governance
Transport For London