Request ID: FOI-2065-2324 Date published: 06 October 2023
You asked
Follow-up to TfL Ref: 0856-2324. Thank you for your response to my email of 16 July 2023 giving more information about the proposed Superloop. While I appreciate the additional information, I am not satisfied with the response particularly in relation to who you consulted with in the borough of Enfield in deciding the route bus stops to be included in the consultation and copies of any communications regarding this. The report you referred to in your response has now been published but it does not enlighten me as to who in Enfield TFL consulted with in making the decision to remove the North Middlesex Hospital stops from the consultation and to add the Green Lanes stop and to forward to me as requested copies of any communications with stakeholders and others pre-consultation in this regard.
In fact, the Consultation report has given rise to more worrying concerns about the consultation process itself in addition to my other concerns. You will see in that report that at least one stakeholder – the Meridian Water housing developer – appears to have had knowledge that two new stops would be added to the route BEFORE they submitted their consultation response (see their consultation response attached). How did this happen? These two stops appear nowhere in the consultation document. And why was a decision such as this made while the consultation was still open? It arguably would make a mockery of the consultation process especially in view of the strong stakeholder response requesting that the North Middlesex Hospital stops should be re-instated. Instead, the TFL bus route consultation report “Next Steps” ignores requests fir hospital stops but does commit to adding the two new stops to the route specifically to support the Meridian Water development. The process appears to be neither transparent nor fair.
I look forward to hearing from you. I hope that it will not be necessary to involve the ICO in this complaint
We answered
TfL Ref: 2065-2324
Thank you for your email received by Transport for London (TfL) on 9 September 2023 asking for information about the proposed Superloop of bus servicers and TfL’s consultation with the London Borough of Enfield about these proposals following your previous request for information, TfL reference: 0856-2324 and your subsequent request for an Internal Review.
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 the information you require. You asked for the following:
Thank you for your response to my email of 16 July 2023 giving more information about the proposed Superloop.
While I appreciate the additional information, I am not satisfied with the response particularly in relation to who you consulted with in the borough of Enfield in deciding the route bus stops to be included in the consultation and copies of any communications regarding this.
The report you referred to in your response has now been published but it does not enlighten me as to who in Enfield TFL consulted with in making the decision to remove the North Middlesex Hospital stops from the consultation and to add the Green Lanes stop and to forward to me as requested copies of any communications with stakeholders and others pre-consultation in this regard.
In fact, the Consultation report has given rise to more worrying concerns about the consultation process itself in addition to my other concerns. You will see in that report that at least one stakeholder – the Meridian Water housing developer – appears to have had knowledge that two new stops would be added to the route BEFORE they submitted their consultation response (see their consultation response attached). How did this happen? These two stops appear nowhere in the consultation document. And why was a decision such as this made while the consultation was still open?
It arguably would make a mockery of the consultation process especially in view of the strong stakeholder response requesting that the North Middlesex Hospital stops should be re-instated. Instead, the TFL bus route consultation report “Next Steps” ignores requests for hospital stops but does commit to adding the two new stops to the route specifically to support the Meridian Water development. The process appears to be neither transparent nor fair.
I look forward to hearing from you. I hope that it will not be necessary to involve the ICO in this complaint.
We would like to advise that with Superloop, these express bus routes are designed to run as directly as possible, minimise stopping while maximising access to the network by serving key attractors such as town centres, transport interchanges and other stops of potential high usage. That is why route SL1 runs in parallel with route 34 among other routes so no stops are left unserved. On route SL1, we explored serving both North Middlesex Hospital and Meridian Water from the outset while sticking to the above principles to create a step change in journey times for passengers compared with route 34.
For North Middlesex Hospital, Silver Street Station stop is equal closest eastbound to the hospital while westbound, Gloucester Road is closer than Silver Street on the A406 but serving it prohibits use of Silver Street (the road), and its bus lanes during the weekday afternoon which provides a quicker alternative during heavy traffic on the A406 towards Green Lanes currently used by route 34.
Silver Street Station also has better waiting facilities than the Gloucester Road and Victoria Road stops, and provides an interchange with local routes that do enter the hospital grounds. For example, stops A and B at Silver Street Station offer the same stop interchange with existing bus routes 444 and 491, which provide direct access to the North Middlesex Hospital site with a combined frequency of eight buses per hour across both routes.
On the Meridian Water stops, there was uncertainty over exact walking route plans for the Meridian Water developments by consultation launch, some of which are in early stages, therefore no stop was shown as we did not know the necessary detail of how best to serve Meridian Water from the A406. To obtain this, TfL discussed this with the London Borough of Enfield and key stakeholders, giving us the necessary information to decide that stops J and H were the best stops for serving Meridian Water. These will be kept under review over the next five to ten years as developments are built and demand patterns in the area change.
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 FOI Case Management Team General Counsel Transport for London
