FOI request detail

Noise complaints London Underground

Request ID: FOI-0816-1920
Date published: 12 July 2019

You asked

In the last 12 months how many complainants have been made about the screeching on London underground tracks.

We answered

TfL Ref: FOI-0816-1920

Thank you for your email of 20th June 2019 asking how many complaints have been made about the noise of trains on London underground tracks in the last 12 months.

Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act and our information access policy.

Specifically you asked:

In the last 12 months how many complaints have been made about the screeching on London underground tracks?”.

I can confirm that we hold the information you require. However, to provide it 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, and then locating, retrieving or 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 – equivalent to 18 hours work.

There is no easy way for TfL to locate the information you have requested. In the period 26/06/2018 to 26/06/2019 there were 1,293 complaints relating to the London Underground logged against the code “Noise Pollution”. In order to determine how many of these specifically related to the noise made from trains on the tracks – as opposed to other forms of noise - we would need to locate, retrieve and review each and every case, which we do not believe is achievable within the 18 hour limit given the numbers involved.

To help bring the cost of responding to your request within the £450 limit, you may wish to consider narrowing or reframing its scope so that we can more easily locate, retrieve and extract the information you are seeking.

Notwithstanding the above, we are aware that a number of the complaints relating to noise on the Underground will relate to that produced by the wheel-rail interface. TfL undertakes assessments on specific track sections where noise levels are reported as a concern, and wherever possible completes appropriate noise-reducing works. There are sections of track with corrugation (high rail roughness), and therefore the rolling contact between train and track may cause higher levels of noise. We maintain a rail grinding programme to address areas of highly corrugated track, but this can only achieve temporary improvements. One particular effect of corrugation on the rail is that the energy created causes noise that can be heard in residential properties (which they experience multiple times throughout the day). To address this we have used a track dampening system which has significantly lowered the noise levels recorded in local homes but has created noise that is being experienced by customers as a result.

Please see the attached information sheet for details of your right to appeal.

Yours sincerely,

David Wells

FOI Case Officer

FOI Case Management Team

General Counsel

Transport for London

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