FOI request detail

Driverless trains

Request ID: FOI-2169-1617
Date published: 24 February 2017

You asked
To bring my request within the cost limit set out under the FOIA, I have reduced the scope of my request to the below. Please provide all reports held concerning the introduction of driverless trains on London Underground services dating from 1st January 2013 to date. Please provide all communications between the Office of the Mayor of London and senior officials of TfL regarding the introduction of driverless trains on London Underground lines from 1st January 2015 to date. Please find a list of senior officials I wish to receive information for below. If new employees have taken over the following positions since, please include their correspondence as well. Graeme Craig Director of Commercial Development Simon Kilonback Director of Group Treasury Andrea Clarke Director of Legal Nigel Holness Operations Director Christopher Macleod Marketing Director Michael Strzelecki Business Transformation Director Steven Townsend Chief Information Officer - TfL Sarah Atkins Commercial Director Rail & Underground Andrew Quincey Director of Commercial Andrew Pollins Chief Finance Officer Stephen Field Director of Pensions & Reward Michael Flynn Head of Programme Martin Rowark Director of Commercial Line Upgrades Paul Thomas Head of Engineering Howard Smith Chief Operating Officer Garrett Emmerson Chief Operating Officer - Surface Transport Shashi Verma Director of Customer Experience Gareth Powell Director of Strategy & Service Development Stephen White Operations Director Tricia Riley HR Director Stuart Harvey Programme Director Michele Dix Managing Director of Planning Vernon Everitt Managing Director - Customer Experience, Marketing & Communications Howard Carter General Counsel Nicholas Brown Chief Operating Officer David Waboso Director of Capital Programmes Carl Devlin Programme Director Stephen Allen Managing Director - Finance Leon Daniels Managing Director - Surface Transport John Gaudette Delivery Manager Mike Brown Managing Director - London Underground & Rail Peter Hendy Commissioner

We answered

TfL Ref: FOI-2169-1617

 

Thank you for your request received by Transport for London (TfL) on 9 January 2017 asking for information about Driverless trains.

 

Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act and our information access policy. I can confirm we do hold the information you require.

 

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.

 

We have estimated that it would considerably exceed the appropriate limit to provide a response to this request. This is because we would need to run a comprehensive search on any and all emails containing the keyword “driverless” and/or “automated” over the specified two year period and then manually review these results individually to determine whether each would fit within the scope of your request and then collate them accordingly. Such a broad and unfocused approach produces thousands of emails requiring a review and this process would considerably exceed the cost limit explained above.

 

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 us. You should identify the precise information that you want as clearly and concisely as you can and you might also consider limiting the time period and employees covered by your request. Additionally you may wish to specify keywords that are less broad in nature and allow for a more targeted search.

 

Please note that we will not be taking further action until we receive your revised request.

 

In the meantime, if you have any queries or would like to discuss your request, please do not hesitate to contact me.

 

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

 

Yours sincerely

 

Lee Hill

Senior FOI Case Officer

 

FOI Case Management Team

General Counsel

Transport for London

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