Our Ref:         FOI-1271-1920

Thank you for your request received on 28 July 2019 asking for information about temperatures on the London Underground.

Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Environmental Information Regulations and our information access policy. I can confirm we do hold the information you require.

London Underground records temperatures across the Underground in order to inform our cooling initiatives. We are investing millions as part of a long-term programme to ensure we can deliver more services, and continue to introduce new trains to meet growing customer numbers whilst providing more comfortable journeys. We have implemented energy efficient solutions on new trains which saves energy and reduces the heat generated. We have also removed heat from our station and tunnel environment by installing new ventilation or cooling solutions.

We are constantly working on new ways to keep the temperature down on the London Underground. There are already air conditioned trains on 40 per cent of the London Underground network and we are determined to do all we can to help make journeys more comfortable on other lines while investing in solutions for the longer term. During periods of hot weather, we advise our customers to ensure they carry water with them when they travel in order to stay hydrated, offer a seat to those who may need it, and, if they feel ill, to contact a member of staff at the next station.

Given the extent of the information you are looking for, we are applying Regulation 12(4)(b) as we believe that the request is ‘manifestly unreasonable’ because providing the information you have requested would impose unreasonable costs on us and require an unreasonable diversion of resources.

To answer your current request would take an excessive amount of staff time and resources. This information is not centrally located, in order to collate it the data has to be downloaded from the loggers at each station. There are over 300 loggers around the network. Once collated the data would still need to processed to produce the requested information. We are looking at ways in which this information can be included in future reports.

The use of this exception is subject to a public interest test, which requires us to consider whether the public interest in applying the exception outweighs the public interest in disclosure. We recognise that the release of information would promote accountability and transparency in public services and may help address your particular concerns about this issue. However, the time it would take to provide the information you have requested would divert a disproportionate amount of our resources from its core functions and on balance we consider that the public interest currently favours the use of the exception.

We will consider your request again, if you are able to narrow its scope so that we can more easily locate, retrieve and extract the information you are seeking.

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

Yours sincerely

Gemma Jacob
Senior FOI Case Officer
FOI Case Management Team
General Counsel
Transport for London

[email protected]