TfL Ref: 1934-1819
 
Thank you for your email received by us on 24 October 2018 asking for information about London bus services.
 
Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act and our information access policy.  You asked for the following:
 
Passengers are becoming increasingly subject to buses parking up for minutes at a time, allegedly to "even out the service" - the 'Delay Instruction'.
What is the number of times this Delay Instruction has been issued to bus drivers since the start of this policy?
What is the actual wait time of each incidence of this Delay Instruction?
How many times a day is it communicated to bus drivers in the London bus network?
What is the average wait time of each Delay Instruction?
What is the average occupancy of a bus when this Delay Instruction has been issued?
What is the maximum number of times on a single bus journey that this Delay Instruction can occur? (For example a journey from Greenwich to Elephant and Castle on bus 188 at about 15:00 hrs on 23 October 2018 incurred two such Delay Instructions.)
What is the daily and cumulative total passenger time of Delay Instructions since the start of the policy?
What is the perceived cost benefit analysis of such a policy?
How many potential passengers benefit from this policy, if any.
Any connected information about the Delay Instruction that may be available is requested too, please.
 
Unfortunately we do not hold the information you have requested as we do not have a policy regarding a delay instruction, nor do we record the data you are seeking.
 
Having buses wait at stops to regulate the service is just one of a number of service control mitigations bus operators (who provide London’s bus services on our behalf) can adopt to provide a regular service. This can sometimes occur due to when the time given in the allocated running schedule is not needed during a particular time in the day, for example when traffic is lighter in the school holidays.
 
We regularly review how much time a route has in its schedule. In particular, the Central London changes currently being considered, as explained at:
https://consultations.tfl.gov.uk/buses/central-london/ are looking at optimising bus services in terms of running time and other factors such as patronage, which will help address any issues around buses being held to regulate the service
 
In the meantime we publish general bus passenger figures via the following link to our website: https://tfl.gov.uk/corporate/publications-and-reports/buses
 
If this is not the information you are looking for, or if you are unable to access it for any reason, 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
 
 
Jasmine Howard
FOI Case Officer
Information Governance
Transport For London