Our Ref:        FOI-2629-2425 / FOI-2630-2425

Thank you for your requests received on 19 November 2024 asking for information about bus journey curtailments.

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 the information you require. You asked:

FOI-2629-2425 

What proportion of bus journeys on the TfL network were terminated early (i.e. by changing destination part-way through a journey) in October 2024?

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 cost over £450 to provide a response to your current request. This is because it is estimated that it would take in excess of 18 working hours to retrieve and compile the information you have requested.

We do not have a way of easily reporting on the proportion of bus journeys that were terminated early. In order to obtain the information we would need to extract and interrogate a vast amount of data to determine how many journeys were curtailed. Even at a conservative of 30 minutes per route, this would need to be done for the 675 bus routes that currently operate.

We do, however, publish some performance data on our website that may be helpful:

https://tfl.gov.uk/corporate/publications-and-reports/buses-performance-data

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. For example, if there are any other specific routes you are interested in we may be able to provide this data. 

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. 

FOI-2630-2425 

What proportion of journeys on the 88 bus were terminated early (i.e. by changing destination part-way through a journey) in October 2024?

Please find attached the curtailment summary data for Route 88, as requested. Please note the following:

•           Data covers the calendar month of October 2024 (01/10/2024 to 31/10/2024)

•           Curtailment data for each direction on the route is shown in separate tables

•           Each table shows the bus stops per direction on the route, in sequence. The row data shows how many trips were scheduled, operated and/or lost at each of those stops

•           In the month of October, approximately 4.01% of mileage was lost due to traffic congestion. This would be the contributing cause of buses being curtailed.

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 

Gemma Jacob

Senior FOI Case Officer

FOI Case Management Team

General Counsel

Transport for London

[email protected]