Redacted Customer Complaints regarding poor track conditions (rough ride, discomfort, sway, thrown about etc.) on the Central line between 01/01/2019 and 31/08/2019.

---

TfL Ref: FOI-1792-1920

Thank you for your request received by Transport for London (TfL) on 15^th September 2019 asking for information about complaints received in relation to the Central Line.

Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act and our information access policy.

Specifically you asked:

“Information on complaints about track: Redacted Customer Complaints regarding poor track conditions (rough ride, discomfort, sway, thrown about etc.) on the Central line between 01/01/2019 and 31/08/2019.”

I can confirm that we hold the information you require. However, we estimate that to source the information to answer your request would exceed the costs limit for responding to FOI cases as set out in section 12 of the FOI Act. Under section 12 of the Act, we are not obliged to comply with a request if we estimate that the cost of determining whether we hold the information, and then locating, retrieving or 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 – equivalent to 18 hours work.

There is no specific “track conditions” keyword used for logging complaints. Our Customer Services team have identified 276 complaints that could potentially – but not necessarily – relate to track conditions on the Central Line in the period in question. The only way to ascertain which of these do and do not fall within the scope of your request would be for each file to be individually reviewed. The Customer Services team estimate that this would take well in excess of the 18 hour threshold.

To help bring the cost of responding to your request within the £450 limit, you may wish to consider narrowing or reframing its scope so that we can more easily locate, retrieve and extract the information you are seeking. However, note that even if we were able to identify all of the relevant complaints within the costs limit, whether or not redacted versions could be supplied to you would be questionable. The process of redaction can be time consuming, and requires the removal of not just obvious personal information such as the names and addresses of complainants, but also any other material which could lead to somebody being identified (such as details of very specific incidents). Each such complaint would therefore need to be considered carefully on its own merits, depending on its specific content. Under section 14 of the FOI Act, public bodies can refuse to answer a request if it would impose a disproportionate burden on them. That exemption might well apply in this case also, depending on the number of complaints involved.

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

Yours sincerely,

David Wells

FOI Case Officer

FOI Case Management Team

General Counsel

Transport for London

Back to top

---