I accordance with the Freedom of Information Act, I am requesting you to provide me with all email, correspondence and meeting notes pertaining to the change of schedule in May 2018 of London Overground Richmond branch. I am asking as this change is have a very negative impact on the residents including myself and I want to understand the rationale.

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Dear

TfL Ref: FOI-0791-1819

Thank you for your email received by Transport for London (TfL) on 21 June 2018.

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

In accordance with the Freedom of Information Act, I am requesting you to provide me with all email, correspondence and meeting notes pertaining to the change of schedule in May 2018 of London Overground Richmond branch.

Prior to the May 2018 timetable change, Arriva Rail London operated 4 trains per hour (tph) from Richmond to Stratford. Following this change, Arriva London still operates 4 tph from Richmond to Stratford but some train times have changed. Additionally, three afternoon services temporarily start/terminate at South Acton.  These services start from Stratford at 13.15/13.45/14.45 and make the return journey from South Acton at 14.10/14.32/15.32.

This is an interim timetable arrangement whilst we await the introduction of new trains and infrastructure upgrades expected next year.

Unfortunately, to provide the information you have specifically 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 providing a response to your current request would considerably exceed the cost limit.

A timetable change involves a whole team of train planners. Planning for the May 2018 timetable change started two years ago. We estimate the train planners hold over 5 thousand emails between them which could be related to the timetable change in question. The time required to manually review each email to see if it was relevant and compile it all 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

  

I accordance with the Freedom of Information Act, I am requesting you to provide me with all email, correspondence and meeting notes pertaining to the change of schedule in May 2018 of London Overground Richmond branch.

I am asking as this change is have a very negative impact on the residents including myself and I want to understand the rationale.

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