Dear Transport for London, Under the Freedom of Information act, I would like to make a request regarding the price breakdown of a travelcard. I would like to know: 1) How much money from the purchase of an Adult travelcard (for zones 1-6) goes to each TOC (Train Operating Company) and how much goes to TFL? 2) Does the amount of money shared with each TOC depend on whether the travelcard is paper or oyster (as you can track which National Rail services an individual uses) or do you simply pay the same amount of money to every National Rail operator within the London Zones? 3) Please supply a list of TOCs that operate within the London Oyster Fare Zone. 4) Do you have a figure for the average amount of journeys per day made using a zones 1-6 travelcard? If so, please can you provide it. Many thanks for your help.

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TfL Ref: 0912-2021

Thank you for your request received by Transport for London (TfL) on 27 August 2020 asking for information about the price breakdown of a travelcard.

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.  Your questions and our responses are as follows:

1) How much money from the purchase of an Adult travelcard (for zones 1-6) goes to each TOC (Train Operating Company) and how much goes to TFL?

The money from the sale of an Adult Travelcard (for zones 1-6) is allocated on a distance basis and will be determined by the passenger kilometres travelled on TfL services and the passenger kilometres travelled on National Rail services.  We know what share of the travelcard is received by TfL and by inference what the National Rail share (as a whole) must be. However we don’t hold information on what the allocation is to each TOC.  Further, we are not obliged to provide the information you have requested on the share received by TfL as it is subject to a statutory exemption to the right of access to information under section 41 of the FOI Act (information provided in confidence).

In this instance the exemption has been applied as disclosure of the information you have requested would breach our agreement with NR as per the Amended and Restated Travelcard Agreement whereby we have agreed that: ‘Each of the Operators and TTL undertakes with each other that it shall keep confidential any information which it acquires (whether before or after the date of this Agreement) relating to sales, revenues and prices of Travelcards; arrangements relating to settlement and allocation of Total Travelcard Revenue; and information relating to the business, assets or affairs of each other, and shall not disclose to any third party any such information’.

The information is not in the public domain and there was no suggestion in the Agreement we made that this information would be made public. Therefore we consider that disclosure would constitute an actionable breach of confidence.

Since section 41 confers an absolute exemption, it is not necessary to consider whether the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information. Even if section 41 did not confer absolute exemption, there would be no special public interest in disclosure of this information that would justify a breach of confidence in this case.

2) Does the amount of money shared with each TOC depend on whether the travelcard is paper or oyster (as you can track which National Rail services an individual uses) or do you simply pay the same amount of money to every National Rail operator within the London Zones?

The principle for allocation is the same for both paper Travelcards and Oyster Travelcards. The amount of money allocated to National Rail operators would depend on the distance travelled on the respective National Rail operators’ services using the Travelcard.

3) Please supply a list of TOCs that operate within the London Oyster Fare Zone.

First Greater Western Limited, Trenitalia c2c Limited, First MTR South Western Trains Limited, Govia Thameslink Railway Limited, The Chiltern Railway Company Limited, London and Southeastern Railway Limited, Abellio East Anglia Limited,  West Midland Trains Limited, Abellio East Midlands Limited, Arriva Rail London Limited, MTR Crossrail Limited.

4) Do you have a figure for the average amount of journeys per day made using a zones 1-6 travelcard? If so, please can you provide it.

Period 5 (26/7/20 to 22/8/20) saw an average of 16,800 journeys (TfL, Bus and NR combined) per day on Z0106 Season Travelcards (Oyster and includes estimates of those journeys made using magnetic stripe Travelcards).

The impact of current circumstances on TfL’s resources means we are not able to answer FOI requests readily and we ask that you please do not make a request to us at present.

Answering FOI requests will require the use of limited resources and the attention of staff who could be supporting other essential activity. In any event, please note that our response time will be affected by the current situation.

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

Sara Thomas

FOI Case Management Team

General Counsel

Transport for London

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