Please provide the following information under the FOI act. • Any documentation regards the route test that was undertaken on route 404 (I.e the risk assessment, notes and results and advisories) on the Tollers Lane Estate and on the Cane Hill Estate prior to the route being approved to serve these areas.

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TfL Ref: 1125-2021 and 1126-2021

Thank you for your requests received by Transport for London (TfL) on 21 September 2020 10 April 2020 asking for various information about bus routes 404, 434, 246 and 359.

Your requests have been considered under the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and our information access policy.

You asked for:

• The current service specification for bus route 404 which includes the extension to the Cane Hill Estate.
• Any email exchanges internally within TfL regarding the extension of route 404 to the Cane Hill Estate within the period of September 2019 to April 2020.
• Any email exchanges internally within TfL regarding the consultation for the re-routing of route 434 to the Cane Hill estate and withdrawal from Rickman Hill within the period of May 2019 to December 2019.
• Any feedback/comments/suggestions/complaints that TfL have received via Customer Services with regards to routes 404, 434, 246 and 359 from 1st January 2020 to 31st March 2020 be it via email, letter or telephone.

• Copy of lost mileage reports or documents submitted by the operator(s) to TfL detailing the reasons as to why the lost mileage occurred on route 404 and 434 within the month of March 2020.

and

• Any documentation regards the route test that was undertaken on route 404 (I.e the risk assessment, notes and results and advisories) on the Tollers Lane Estate and on the Cane Hill Estate prior to the route being approved to serve these areas.

We are applying Regulation 5(1) of the Freedom of Information (FOI) and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004, which permits us to take into account requests made by the same person which relate, to any extent, to the same or similar information.

Due to the wide scope of questions 2 and 3 of your first request above, we are not able to confirm at this stage whether we hold any relevant emails to meet these parts of your request as to do so would in itself 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 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 it would significantly exceed the cost limit to provide a response to your current request. This is because in order to locate all the information you have requested we would have to carry out a company wide email search on those specific route numbers which we know from previous attempted searches for information of this nature, will generate a huge volume of email ‘hits’, with the vast majority being entirely irrelevant to the information you are requesting. Each email would then need to be manually reviewed in order to see if it falls within the scope of your request.

To help bring the cost of responding to your request within the £450 limit, you may wish to consider refining your requests to concentrate on matters which are important to you. We can say that at this stage, we may be able to provide you with the current specification for route 404 and lost mileage reports if you submit a revised request for this information;  please also note that asking for details of feedback / comments / suggestions / complaints may also result in personal information being withheld under data protection legislation.

If you want to 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 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 the organisation.

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.

If you are considering submitting a further FOI request please think carefully about whether the request is essential at this current time, as answering FOI requests will require the use of limited resources and the attention of staff who could be supporting other essential activity. Where requests are made, please note that our response time may be impacted by the current situation.

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

Yours sincerely

Sara Thomas

FOI Case Management Team

General Counsel

Transport for London

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