Could you please let me know the number of times and dates Canada Water station had been partially closed due to overcrowding/congestion since January 2017 until the most recent date? This includes times when passengers are held at the ticket barriers due to crowded platforms. Thank you.

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TfL Ref: 1553-1920

Thank you for your request received by Transport for London (TfL) on 22 August 2019 asking for information about Canada Water station.

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.

You asked: Could you please let me know the number of times and dates Canada Water station had been partially closed due to overcrowding/congestion since January 2017 until the most recent date? This includes times when passengers are held at the ticket barriers due to crowded platforms.

Unfortunately, to provide the 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 £450 (which equates to 18 hours of staff time  and resource). 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 your request you have specifically asked about ‘partial station closures’ at Canada Water station caused by ‘overcrowding / congestion’ including instances when passengers are ‘held at the ticket barriers due to crowded platforms over a period of more than 2 and a half years. An initial search of our centralised database shows that there were no ‘partial’ station closures for the period in question (these are closures defined as the non-stopping on one or more platforms/lines within the station with some entrances, interchange or exits being temporarily closed).

However we do maintain some locally held records at individual stations of when congestion control measures are put into place, and a preliminary search of Canada Water station has identified that 1461 Emergency Incident Report Forms (EIRFs) were completed in the period 01/01/2019 – 01/09/19. In order for us to ensure that every incident where a gateline or ticket barrier has been temporarily closed is captured,  would require a member of staff to manually review each incident report to ascertain whether it was within the scope of your request and to extract any relevant information. If we allowed a conservative estimate of 2 minutes to review each incident report form, it is clear the limit of 18 hours  would be greatly exceeded.

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. In this instance perhaps a much shorter time period or a specific incident of closure that you maybe interested in. 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 should identify the information that you want as clearly and concisely as you can, specifying the types of document that you are looking for.

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

Sara Thomas

FOI Case Management Team

General Counsel

Transport for London

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