FOI request detail

Information about the delays on Met Line

Request ID: FOI-2345-1920
Date published: 04 December 2019

You asked

Please could you kindly provide me with the following information: - Copy of report or any correspondence that outlines the reason for the delays on the Met Line on 21 10 2019, 28 10 2019 and 04 11 2019 at evening rush hour. What was the fault with the train, what was the fault with the signalling system, precisely. - Copy of statistics advising on the reliability of the service. What was the percentage of trains that ran on time between 2 September 2019 to 2 November 2019 and what was the percentage of trains that ran on time between 2 September 2018 to 2 November 2018? - Information advising how many customers applied for refunds between 2 September 2019 to 2 November 2019 and how many customers applied for refunds between 2 September 2018 and 2 November 2018?

We answered

TfL Ref: 2345-1920

Thank you for your request received by us on 5 November 2019 asking for information about delays on London Underground’s Metropolitan line service.

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 hold some of the information you require. You asked for:

- Copy of report or any correspondence that outlines the reason for the delays on the Met Line on 21 10 2019, 28 10 2019 and 04 11 2019 at evening rush hour. What was the fault with the train, what was the fault with the signalling system, precisely.

We are investing £5.4 billion to modernise the trains, track and signalling on the oldest parts of the Underground – the Metropolitan, District, Hammersmith & City and Circle lines. This work will improve journeys on 40 per cent of the Tube network, and is the largest single upgrade in the history of the Underground. It will result in greater capacity and improved frequency, as well as improved journey times, better reliability and better customer information.

Customers have already seen the benefits of the brand new walk-through air conditioned trains. Now we are into the critical stage of introducing the new signalling, including replacing signalling equipment built in 1926.

On 2 September 2019, a section of new digital signalling was introduced from Latimer Road to Finchley Road and Euston Square, with trains operating automatically on those sections of the route.

We extensively tested the new signalling during engineering hours and on weekends prior to going live, and this went well. But, while running the new software with the trains in a live environment we have experienced some software reliability issues and there have been a number of incidents of disruption for our customers. These have largely centred around communications issues between software systems on and off the trains.

We have been working with our signalling supplier to identify how to address these issues, and fixes are now being developed. Two software updates are scheduled for late this month and for mid-January next year, which we are confident will improve the situation for our customers.

We fully understand how frustrating this is, and we apologise for the disruption that customers are currently facing. We are working 24-7 and taking every measure possible to tackle the delays and improve the service as soon as possible

- Copy of statistics advising on the reliability of the service. What was the percentage of trains that ran on time between 2 September 2019 to 2 November 2019 and what was the percentage of trains that ran on time between 2 September 2018 to 2 November 2018?

There were 86 cases of Severe and Minor Delays in the 81 day period prior to the introduction of the new signalling (on 2nd September 2019) and 275 in the same time period after the introduction of the new signalling. The data is based on the Service Status on the Metropolitan Line as recorded by the London Underground Control Centre, up to and including 20th November 2019. Not all of these instances of delays would have been related to the new signalling system.

- Information advising how many customers applied for refunds between 2 September 2019 to 2 November 2019 and how many customers applied for refunds between 2 September 2018 and 2 November 2018?

Oyster and contactless customers who were delayed by more than 15 minutes between 2 and 8 September and whose journeys may have changed were automatically refunded.

The daily breakdown of these refunds is shown in following table:

Date                 Refunds issued
02/09/2019             14,064
03/09/2019             17,866
04/09/2019             32,311
05/09/2019             17,881
06/09/2019             12,623
07/09/2019             14,322
08/09/2019              7,248

However, when a customer completes a claims submission for a delayed journey the mode of travel is requested rather the London Underground line, therefore we do not record this information in the format requested. To fulfil this part of your request would require manually re-assessing each Oyster and Contactless journey associated with every claim submitted between the above dates to determine which claims were feasibly affected by the Metropolitan line disruption by using the origin and destination details of each journey undertaken. Consequently, to provide such data 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.

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 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 the organisation.

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

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

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