Please can you provide a copy of all correspondance (to include emails or written reports / briefings) shared amongst Metropolitan Line staff relating to service delays (minor or major) on Metropolitan Line services since the 4th September 2019.

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TfL Ref: 2461-1920

Thank you for your request received by Transport for London (TfL) on 13 November 2019 asking for information about the Metropolitan line.

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

You asked for: Please can you provide a copy of all correspondence (to include emails or written reports / briefings) shared amongst Metropolitan Line staff relating to service delays (minor or major) on Metropolitan Line services since the 4th September 2019.

I can confirm that we hold the information you require.

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.

However, we estimate that to provide the information you have requested would exceed the ‘appropriate limit’ of £450 for responding to FOI cases. 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, and then locating, retrieving or 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 – equivalent to 18 hours work.

There is no easy way for us to source all of the information covered in your request as in order to locate all the emails, written reports, briefings and other correspondence between Metropolitan line employees you have requested relating to service delays on the Metropolitan line since 4 September 2019 we would have to conduct an email search across the whole organisation using a key word of ‘Metropolitan Line’ and ‘delay(s)’ over the time period you’ve asked about. This would generate potentially thousands of emails which would each have to be manually reviewed in order to extract any emails which fall within the scope of your request. The wide ranging nature of this search is necessary to ensure that everything you’ve asked for it captured however it is likely that the search would also capture a lot of emails about service delay refunds and customer service related emails.

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 specific documents rather than a broad request for correspondence.

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.

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

Sara Thomas

FOI Case Management Team

General Counsel

Transport for London

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