TfL Ref: FOI-2523-2425

Thank you for your request received by Transport for London (TfL) on 4 November 2024 asking for information about announcements. 

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

Specifically you asked:

1)

Please could i request access to the TFL audio database - the link where you share your automated announcements for buses etc

Does this link include the new announcements for the Central and Bakerloo lines.

You will have received an email separately that provides a link to the requested audio announcements. Please note that all of the audio announcements across the full TfL network that we are currently able to provide access to are accessible via this site. However, please be aware that many of the audio announcements that can be heard across the network are actually made up of smaller, fragmented recordings which are then combined for the purposes of public announcements so there will be some instances where full recordings of specific stop/station names, numbers or locations are not held.

The audio announcements made available to you are copyrighted material and access is provided for personal use only with permission not granted for any re-production or re-use. In the event that these files are re-used in any way we are likely to consider this to constitute a breach of copyright and will consider appropriate next steps. 

Please be aware that we are unable to provide full access to audio announcements across the London Underground network because of contractual prohibitions on disclosure which means these are exempt from disclosure in accordance with section 43(2) of the FOI Act. We do not consider it in the public interest to breach these contractual obligations for the purposes of disclosure given that there is limited wider public interest in this material to support that. Those that we are able to provide can be found at the link provided.

We intend to update these files on a six monthly basis and so any newer recordings will be uploaded as part of this pre-determined schedule, rather than in response to specific future FOI requests. This is to ensure our resources can be managed effectively. Therefore, if you are aware of newer recordings that have been created that are not yet uploaded, we would appreciate your patience with this as requests for these recordings will be refused under section 22 of the FOI Act on the basis that there is a pre-existing intention to publish these in accordance with our publication schedule. We would therefore encourage you to wait for this upload rather than submit requests for recordings in this way. To confirm, these updates are expected to occur around January and July of each year.

2)

Please could you supply a script list / book for what the actual announcements are due to say at each station - Central and Bakerloo lines only. I am referring to the new (temporary) ones which are not in use yet except for the couple of refurbished trains. Not the scripts that all the fleets use.

Unfortunately, we do not hold the information you have requested as the script is in the process of being finalised. We intend to complete the script by the New Year. We encourage you to submit your request at a later date. 

3)

Northern line announcements are released under FOI.

In about early 2000s, some Northern line sets used some new announcements which were never installed across the whole fleet. I think about 3 trains had them and they were reverted to standard after a few months. Do you hold copies of these messages

As mentioned above, all of the audio announcements across the full TfL network that we are currently able to provide access to are accessible via the audio file site. Any announcements that are not provided are either exempt from disclosure, or in all probability are not held. 

4)

Can you advise if/when TFL are likely to advertise vacancies for Train Operators and are these likely to be external? I remember TFL ran a nigh tube campaign before lockdown. If there are to be any further extensions to night tube or just vacancies in general, are they likely to go external

Please note this is not a request for recorded information under the FOI Act. However, we do publish external job opportunities on our website here: https://tfl.gov.uk/corporate/careers/

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. 

Yours sincerely,

Mary Abidakun

FOI Case Officer

FOI Case Management Team

General Counsel

Transport for London