FOI request detail

journey data

Request ID: FOI-1039-2021
Date published: 22 September 2020

You asked

Dear Sirs, I’ve been in contact with TFL about my concerns about the lack of face coverings being worn on the London Overground and the Underground networks - they have directed me to you to clarify this information as: With regards to information about figures presented regarding percentages of the number of individual journeys taken across our network between 4 July - 3 August, please contact our Freedom of Information team at [email protected]. They will collate the information and reply to you directly. This is the data I have been provided with: • Between the dates of 4 July - 3 August our enforcement officers have issued 248 Fixed Penalty Notice (FPN). • We've also prevented 3,966 people from boarding and 1010 were ejected from the service. • 54,700 people were stopped by TfL enforcement officers from getting on our public transport services until they put on a face covering. Most complied by getting their face covering from their bag or pocket, putting it on correctly or purchasing one from a nearby shop. However none of the data above gives me a real sense of the scope of this enforcement work as I have no idea how many individual journeys are carried out on your network. So what I’d like is the data above for the period mentioned as a percentage of the total number of individual (unique) journeys on the network for the same period. I will then take this full picture to my MP and use it in my future communications I intend to continue pursuing on this most distressing matter.

We answered

TfL Ref 1039-2021

Thank you for your request received by Transport for London (TfL) on 8 September 2020 asking for information about passenger journey data.

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.

We are making every effort to improve compliance with face covering regulations and provide a safe transport network for our customers. Communications, behaviour change measures and enforcement have an important role to play but we need our customers to do the right thing and wear a face covering to keep themselves and others safe. Most are doing the right thing and where we are know there are issues with low levels of compliance we are targeting those areas.

Enforcement of these regulations is carried out by TfL and our funded policing partners – the British Transport Police (BTP) and the Metropolitan Police Roads and Transport Policing Command. To date, TfL’s own enforcement activity had been predominantly focussed on the bus and tram networks. The BTP also undertakes enforcement on the tram network as well as other rail networks including London Underground, London Overground, Docklands Light Railway and TfL Rail.

The numbers provided with you in the response from Customer Services refer to our buses and trams only as the British Transport Police (BTP) carry out enforcement on our Tube, Rail and DLR services.

TfL’s initial approach was to focus on engagement and explanation of the new requirement by frontline staff, through extensive customer-facing communications and behaviour change activity. Over three weeks following the announcement, over 100,000 complimentary facemasks were handed out by frontline staff at the busiest train and bus stations to encourage compliance, supported by a visible police and uniformed presence once mandatory face coverings on public transport were announced. We have been running an extensive communications campaign that has included posters and PA announcements to make our customers aware. This has focused on informing customers that they must wear a covering for their entire journey and that it must cover their nose and mouth. This has included a major advertising campaign, posters at all stations, PA announcements across the transport network, social media and emails to TfL’s customer database. This communications activity is ongoing.

We have been educating customers of the need to wear face coverings over their nose and mouth, unless exempt, since June. As a result, we are now seeing widespread usage on our network, with more than 90 per cent of passengers complying at the busiest times.

While we do not expect our frontline staff to enforce the regulations and stop customers from travelling who are not complying, they will engage with customers to remind them of the requirement to wear face coverings if they feel it is safe to do so. We have also introduced measures so frontline staff can report issues with non-compliance.

We have published journey data specifically across the period of the pandemic which can be located using the following link: https://tfl.gov.uk/corporate/publications-and-reports/coronavirus-publications.

We also publish network usage data on our website including network statistics and Rolling Origin & Destination Survey (RODS) data: https://tfl.gov.uk/info-for/open-data-users/our-open-data

In addition, information on seasonal variations can be obtained from our Quarterly Performance reports: https://tfl.gov.uk/corporate/publications-and-reports/quarterly-progress-reports

The Q2 report is due to be published in the Autumn will cover the period  between July and September 2021.

If this is not the information you are looking for, or if you are unable to access it for some 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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