in the past 12 months I have noticed that the frequency of service has been cut on several bus routes. What is the total number of trips cut in the past 12 months? What I mean by a trip is as follows: If a bus has gone from an 8 minute frequency to 10 minute frequency over 12 hours that would be a total of 18 trips cut (90 bus journeys on the old schedule-72 bus journeys on the new schedule). Many thanks

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Dear

TfL Ref: FOI-0695-1819

Thank you for your email received by Transport for London (TfL) on 15 June 2018.

Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act and our information access policy. You asked:

In the past 12 months I have noticed that the frequency of service has been cut on several bus routes.  What is the total number of trips cut in the past 12 months? 

What I mean by a trip is as follows:  If a bus has gone from an 8 minute frequency to 10 minute frequency over 12 hours that would be a total of  18 trips cut (90 bus journeys on the old schedule-72 bus journeys on the new schedule).

Unfortunately, to provide the information you have requested would exceed the ‘appropriate limit’ of £450 set by the Freedom of Information (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004.

Under section 12 of the FOI Act, we are not obliged to comply with a request if we estimate that the cost of determining whether we hold the information, locating and retrieving it and extracting it from other information would exceed the appropriate limit. This is calculated at £25 per hour for every hour spent on the activities described.

We have estimated that it would significantly exceed the appropriate limit to provide a response to your current request.

In order to retrieve and collate this information we would have to manually review every bus route that has changed frequency in the last 12 months (approximately 100 – 150 routes). This work would include identifying the bus schedule before and after the change and counting the number of trips in each direction. Please note there are approximately three schedules per route but often more. We would then have to work out the difference in trips for each route and the net change in trips across the whole bus network. Therefore to provide a response to your current request would be a burdensome task.

To help bring the cost of responding to your request within the £450 limit, you may wish to consider narrowing its scope so that we can more easily locate, retrieve and extract the information you are seeking. If you want to refine your request or make a Freedom of Information Act request in future, please bear in mind that the Freedom of Information Act allows you to request recorded information held by Transport for London. You should identify the information that you want as clearly and concisely as you can, specifying the types of document that you are looking for. You might also consider limiting your request to a particular period of time, geographical area or specific departments of TfL.

Although your request can take the form of a question, rather than a request for specific documents, TfL does not have to answer your question if it would require the creation of new information or the provision of a judgement, explanation, advice or opinion that was not already recorded at the time of your request.

Please note that we will not be taking further action until we receive your revised request.

In the meantime, if you have any queries or would like to discuss your request, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Yours sincerely

Eva Hextall

FOI Case Officer

FOI Case Management Team

General Counsel

Transport for London

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