Under the FOI act i would like to please request the following information in regards to cash tickets sold by the driver onboard TFL buses 1. For each of the following ten periods i would like to know the total amount of cash tickets sold by drivers onboard each TFL bus route. 6/7/2004 - 5/7/2005 6/7/2005 - 5/7/2006 6/7/2006 - 5/7/2007 6/7/2007 - 5/7/2008 6/7/2008 - 5/7/2009 6/7/2009 - 5/7/2010 6/7/2010 - 5/7/2011 6/7/2011 - 5/7/2012 6/7/2012 - 5/7/2013 6/7/2013 - 5/7/2014 To clarify for each of the time periods listed i would like individual statistics for each route number (so not just one statistic for all routes). For example how many cash tickets were sold on route 1 from 6/7/2013 - 5/7/2014 then how many cash tickets were sold on route 2 from 6/7/2013 - 5/7/2014 then how many cash tickets were sold on route 3 from 6/7/2013 - 5/7/2014 etc and so on for each bus route. And then the same for each time period listed above. 2. How many complaints have you received about cash no longer being accepted on TFL bus services. And can i please see the details of all of these complaints. 3. How many reported incidents related to cash not being accepted by the driver onboard have occurred on TFL buses since cash was withdrawn from 6/7/2014 (like fights and arguments etc). And can i please see the details of all of these incidents. 4. Before you stopped accepting cash did you consult the bus operators (like Abellio / Arriva / First / Go Ahead / RATP / Stagecoach etc) for their views about this. And if so can i please see any information about communication between TFL and the bus operators about this. 5. What is the official guidance given to TFL bus drivers for them to do if someone comes on the bus and tries to pay with cash and has no contactless card or oyster card on them.

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Our Ref:         FOI-1876-1718

Thank you for your request received on 12 October 2017 asking for information about cash fares on buses.

Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act and TfL’s information access policy. I can confirm we do hold the information you require.

1. For each of the following ten periods i would like to know the total amount of cash tickets sold by drivers onboard each TFL bus route.

6/7/2004 - 5/7/2005
6/7/2005 - 5/7/2006
6/7/2006 - 5/7/2007
6/7/2007 - 5/7/2008
6/7/2008 - 5/7/2009
6/7/2009 - 5/7/2010
6/7/2010 - 5/7/2011
6/7/2011 - 5/7/2012
6/7/2012 - 5/7/2013
6/7/2013 - 5/7/2014

To clarify for each of the time periods listed i would like individual statistics for each route number (so not just one statistic for all routes). For example how many cash tickets were sold on route 1 from 6/7/2013 - 5/7/2014 then how many cash tickets were sold on route 2 from 6/7/2013 - 5/7/2014 then how many cash tickets were sold on route 3 from 6/7/2013 - 5/7/2014 etc and so on for each bus route. And then the same for each time period listed above.

At a network level, in early 2014/15 bus passenger journeys using cash had fallen to around 1% of the network total, circa 60,000 transactions per day. This combined with other mitigating practices, such as the launch of our ‘One More Journey’ Oyster feature, meant that by 6 July 2014, when Cash Free went live, cash journeys had actually reduced even further to around 0.7% of all bus passenger journeys on the London bus network.

Unfortunately, to provide you with the requested breakdown per route 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. This is calculated at £25 per hour for every hour spent on the activities described.

We have estimated that it would cost over £450 to provide a response to your current request. We are unable to run a report on this information due to the size of the data set the information would need to be extracted from. We would have to run a separate report for each bus route operated, it would therefore take over 18 working hours to retrieve and compile the information you have requested.

2. How many complaints have you received about cash no longer being accepted on TFL bus services. And can i please see the details of all of these complaints.
3. How many reported incidents related to cash not being accepted by the driver onboard have occurred on TFL buses since cash was withdrawn from 6/7/2014 (like fights and arguments etc). And can i please see the details of all of these incidents.

Providing you with parts 2 and 3 of your request would further exceed the appropriate limit. As the switch to a cash-free bus network was well publicised in the media and as the transition occurred with very few issues immediately afterwards, we did not collect separate data on conflict incidents of this nature.

We have run a report on the number of complaints we received over the requested period and have identified almost 5,000 possible complaints. However, in order to determine whether these cases are relevant to your request we would need to review each of them.

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. 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 Transport for London. 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 TfL.

Although your request can take the form of a question, rather than a request for specific documents, TfL does 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.

4. Before you stopped accepting cash did you consult the bus operators (like Abellio / Arriva / First / Go Ahead / RATP / Stagecoach etc) for their views about this. And if so can i please see any information about communication between TFL and the bus operators about this.

TfL took the decision to stop accepting cash payments due to the particularly low and falling use of cash on the bus network and the disproportionate costs and security infrastructure involved in processing payments among all parties involved. We undertook one of our largest full public consultation for all parties to express their views including the bus operators and staff unions. Details can be found at https://consultations.tfl.gov.uk/buses/cashless/.

5. What is the official guidance given to TFL bus drivers for them to do if someone comes on the bus and tries to pay with cash and has no contactless card or oyster card on them.

All drivers were issued with guidance ahead of the bus network going cash-free. This information is now available on pages 11 and 100 of the Big Red Book, which is issued to all bus drivers:

http://www.transportforall.org.uk/news/bus-drivers-big-red-book

In accordance with section 21 of the FOI Act, we are not obliged to supply you with a copy of the requested information as it is already accessible to you elsewhere.

If this is not the information you are looking for, or if you are unable to access it for some reason, please feel free to contact me.

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

Yours sincerely

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

[email protected]

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