TfL Ref: FOI-2601-1617

Thank you for your email received by us on 23 March 2017 asking for information about bus lane enforcement and Tube working timetables. I apologise for the delay in my response.

Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act and our information access policy.  You asked:

Under the Freedom of Information Act I hereby request the following in an Excel spreadsheet.
Locations of each bus lane camera
The amount of revenue prior to costs of each bus lane camera that Birmingham City Council operate.
The ongoing costs of enforcement from each bus lane camera
The surplus, if any, made from each bus lane enforcement camera
I also require:

The calibration certificates for each bus lane camera and copies of the type approval from the department of Transport and other governmental departments
Dates and times where the cameras has been offline and the reasons what for
The traffic regulation orders for each bus lane

Unfortunately we do not hold the information you have requested as TfL does not have dedicated bus lane cameras. Instead we have a network of cameras across London enforcing a range of issues such as red route parking violations, illegal manoeuvres and bus lane violations. Some but not all of these cameras will be in locations suited to enforcing bus lane violations.

Contraventions are not captured automatically and are instead enforced by TfL Compliance Officers. Enforcement is carried out on an intelligence led basis, when and where we know issues occur that are a safety risk or the potential to cause significant disruption to the network. This means there may be some cameras that are regularly used for enforcement of bus lanes and others that are not.

I further request copies of the Working Timetables for the Underground for the past Calender Year for when engineering Work has been done, along with the Working Timetables for any tube or Overground replacement bus services

Unfortunately, to provide London Underground working timetables and engineering notices in the past year would exceed the ‘appropriate limit’ of £450 set by the Freedom of Information (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004. It would take additional time to provide the replacement bus service Working Timetables.

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 cost £750 to provide a response to your current request. This is because it is estimated that it would take over 30 working hours to retrieve and compile the information you have requested. The information is not held centrally and would have to be extracted from multiple folders covering the period requested.

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.

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 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

Paulina Tuffour
FOI Case Officer

FOI Case Management Team
General Counsel
Transport for London