TfL Ref: FOI-1952-1617

Thank you for your email received by us on 10 January 2017 asking for information about complaints made to the email address, [email protected].  Please accept my apologies for the delay in responding to you.

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

A range of correspondence relating to accessibility is received by the email address, [email protected] .  Complaints are passed to our customer services team to respond to. The customer services team also receive complaints through other channels and the data they hold is not limited to complaints received at the [email protected] address.

An initial search of complaints received by customer services since 2006 identified several thousand which have been categorised as relating to accessibility.  In order to answer your request, each instance would need to be manually reviewed to identify whether the complaint was initially received via the [email protected] address, and if so, to extract the information required to answer your questions about the date, location and handling of the complaint.

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. This is calculated at £25 per hour for every hour spent on the activities described. You may wish to make a revised request, covering a significantly shorter timeframe, which we will re-consider.

We are always looking at how we can improve accessibility and welcome any feedback which will enable us as an organisation to improve services on the TfL network and give a greater choice of travel options.  All our station staff and bus drivers undergo disability equality training, designed with disabled people. 

We are committed to improving the network even further and are investing an additional £200 million over the next five years. We operate a turn-up-and-go assistance service on London Overground and TfL Rail, as well London Underground, that means that those who need assistance can arrive at stations and have staff help them with boarding and alighting without having to book in advance. All of London's buses, taxis, trams, the Emirates Air Line, many boats and some private hire vehicles are also fully accessible.

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

Yours sincerely

Paulina Tuffour
FOI Case Officer

FOI Case Management Team
General Counsel
Transport for London