Freedom of Information request - Software used to make diagrams and the cost
Request ID: FOI-0999-2122 Date published: 22 September 2021
You asked
Dear Transport for London,
Please provide the following information:
1. The names of software you have used to produce the public maps of your services, including, but not limited to:
1.1 Bus "spider diagrams" (containing embedded geographical maps in the centre or otherwise); and 1.2. London quadrant maps (which I understand are discontinued); and 1.3. Locality maps; and 1.4. Tube/London Connecting maps; and 1.5. River service maps
2. The licence cost for each of the above items of software for the last 10 years.
3. Your policy for updating the above maps by type, in brief.
4. Details as to why the London quadrant maps were discontinued
5. The general cost to you of producing each map type based on data you already hold.
Yours faithfully,
We answered
TfL Ref: 0999-2122
Thank you for your email received by us on 30 July 2021 asking for information about the cost of map production, licensing and software expenditure for various public maps across our modal services.
Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act and our information access policy. You asked for:
1.The names of software you have used to produce the public maps of your services, including, but not limited to:
1.1 Bus "spider diagrams" (containing embedded geographical maps in the centre or otherwise); and 1.2. London quadrant maps (which I understand are discontinued); and 1.3. Locality maps; and 1.4. Tube/London Connecting maps; and 1.5. River service maps
2. The licence cost for each of the above items of software for the last 10 years.
3. Your policy for updating the above maps by type, in brief.
4. Details as to why the London quadrant maps were discontinued
5. The general cost to you of producing each map type based on data you already hold.
Details of the current software used in our mapping products, as mentioned in the link to the Licensing Agreement sample below states that ‘the "Artwork" includes but is not limited to a digital file, supplied in Apple Macintosh or PC format as an EPS, JPEG or PDF, full particulars of which are set out in the schedule’. https://content.tfl.gov.uk/sample-licence-agreement.pdf
In terms of updating our maps, the Rail & Tube map gets updated when the other National Rail maps get updated, and this normally occurs when National Rail timetables change, which happens in May and December. Sometimes we have reason to update the maps at a different time, for instance when any major changes to the Tube network occur. A very recent example of this is the updating of Tube maps to show London Underground’s new Northern line extension as the following press release explains:
Turning to bus maps, following the large number of recent changes to the bus network in the past few years, TfL has been working on updating all of the information at stops and shelters. This includes posting an estimated 6,000 updated bus spider maps at stops across London. TfL has also been updating the design of its bus spider maps to make them easier to use and more accessible. Some spider maps have been discontinued as recent research with passenger shows that they are used by less than one per cent of bus users. In future, TfL will focus on providing maps at those shelters which serve multiple routes or serve destinations that are more likely to be unfamiliar to the travelling public.
We can advise that TfL has not stopped publishing quadrant bus maps but they have been redesigned to include more information and be more user-friendly. They are now called the Travel Options leaflets and include a local Legible London map, bus routes and other transport options. Seven different Travel Options leaflets are now available for Hammersmith, Liverpool Street, London Bridge, Stratford, North Greenwich, Victoria and Euston. They can be picked up at Bus Stations and Visitor Information Centres. TfL still provides the Central London Bus map, which is very popular with visitors and is available online or at Visitor Information Centres in paper format.
The cost of producing maps can be found in our contract expenditure section via the Transparency part of the website: https://content.tfl.gov.uk/contracts-awarded-tfl.pdf. This includes examples of the following agreements, with their earliest expiry dates:
Cartography Services: Lot 2: Tube & Rail incl. Licensing Mapping products. 03/07/2022 £500K - £1M Pulse Media
Cartography Services Provision of cartography services, eg for Legible London products, Tube Maps, Bus Spiders Maps. 05/06/2021 £500K - £1M Lot 1: Pindar Media
Cartography Services: Lot 1 Bus Customer Information Mapping products 03/07/2022 £500K - £1M Pindar Creative
Cartography Services: Lot 2: Tube & Rail incl. Licensing Mapping products. 03/07/2022 £500K - £1M Pulse Media
Cartography Services: Lot 3 Legible London & Cycle Mapping Totems Mapping products 03/07/2022 £250K - £500K T-Kartor
Cartography Services: Lot 4 Cycle Hire Docking Stations Mapping products 03/07/2022 £5K - £250K T-Kartor
Cartography Services: Lot 1 Bus Customer Information- Variation, for increased delegated authority due to an overspend in years 2 and 3 of the contract. An additional £140,640 is required taking the Total Outline Agreement to £984,460 03/07/2022 £500K - £1M Pindar Creative
ICT13635 - Esri ArcGIS Online Licences ArcGIS is a geographic information system (GIS) that connects maps, apps, data and people enabling smarter, faster decisions. Users across TfL may discover, use, make and share maps from any device, anywhere, anytime. 03/08/2021 £5K - £250K Esri UK
Unfortunately, to provide the remainder of 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.
For example, we would need to retrieve and examine each contract over the ten year period requested in relation bus spider maps, locality maps, Tube, London Connection maps; and London River Services maps, to see if there was a breakdown per software item. Any change in service provider at any point could therefore result in a different software package being used, especially given that software changes over time.
It is also worth noting for any revised FOI requests you may wish to make that individual breakdowns of each software cost within each contract, could be subject to a statutory exemption to the right of access to information under section 43(2) – prejudice to commercial interests as disclosure could be likely to prejudice our ability to achieve best value from such agreements in future.
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 us. You might also consider limiting your request to a geographical area or narrower range of maps and period of time for example.
Although your request can take the form of a question, rather than a request for specific documents, we do 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.
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 FOI Case Management Team General Counsel Transport for London
