FOI request detail

Bins, Rubbish and Delays on the London Underground system

Request ID: FOI-2657-1718
Date published: 28 February 2018

You asked

Dear FOI Officer of Transport for London, I am writing to you under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to request the following information from you: I am interested in examining the issue of rubbish in tube stations and would requests the following data and answers: 1). How many London Underground Stations DO NOT have bins on their platforms? 2). How many London Underground Stations DO have bins on their platforms? 3). In the last three calendar years (2017, 2016 and 2015) How many delays have been caused on the London Underground network by litter or rubbish having to be removed from the track? 4). In the last three calendar years (2017, 2016 and 2015) How much money has been spent clearing rubbish from tube platforms that DO NOT have rubbish bins provided? Please provide the information in the form of an .xls for data and docx file for text. If it is not possible to provide the information requested due to the information exceeding the cost of compliance limits identified in Section 12, please provide advice and assistance, under your Section 16 obligations, as to how I can refine my request to be included in the scope of the Act. In any case, if you can identify ways that my request could be refined please provide further advice and assistance to indicate this. I look forward to your response within 20 working days, as stipulated by the Act. If you have any queries please don’t hesitate to contact me via email or phone and I will be happy to clarify what I am asking for, my details are outlined below. Best wishes,

We answered

Our ref: FOI-2657-1718/GH

Thank you for your request received by Transport for London (TfL) on 16 December 2017 asking for information about litter on London Underground. I am sorry for the delay in replying.

Your request has been considered under the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and our information access policy. I can confirm that we do hold some of the information you require.

1). How many London Underground Stations DO NOT have bins on their platforms?

2). How many London Underground Stations DO have bins on their platforms?

This information is not held. The number of stations with bins on platforms changes to reflect demand or specific events. This information is not recorded and therefore the only way to answer your question for a specific day would be to manually check each station.

3). In the last three calendar years (2017, 2016 and 2015) How many delays have been caused on the London Underground network by litter or rubbish having to be removed from the track?

Service disruptions due to litter generally are as a result of obstructions that prevent train doors from closing. The chart below shows the number of delays by period for the last 3 years together with the average delay in minutes.

Period

Number of train delays due to litter

Average train delay in mins

2014-15 P12

35

6.2

2014-15 P13

22

5.3

2015-16 P01

18

4.8

2015-16 P02

27

5.0

2015-16 P03

25

5.3

2015-16 P04

30

5.5

2015-16 P05

46

5.0

2015-16 P06

30

5.3

2015-16 P07

31

5.5

2015-16 P08

27

5.8

2015-16 P09

31

5.6

2015-16 P10

30

4.5

2015-16 P11

35

5.2

2015-16 P12

31

5.3

2015-16 P13

29

5.7

2016-17 P01

24

5.4

2016-17 P02

30

5.5

2016-17 P03

32

6.0

2016-17 P04

34

5.4

2016-17 P05

52

5.7

2016-17 P06

43

4.9

2016-17 P07

42

5.4

2016-17 P08

27

5.8

2016-17 P09

35

5.5

2016-17 P10

33

5.0

2016-17 P11

29

5.2

2016-17 P12

34

4.5

2016-17 P13

38

5.3

2017-18 P01

41

5.7

2017-18 P02

46

5.2

2017-18 P03

51

4.9

2017-18 P04

40

5.4

2017-18 P05

41

6.0

2017-18 P06

39

5.9

2017-18 P07

40

5.0

2017-18 P08

40

5.4

2017-18 P09

41

5.6

2017-18 P10

35

6.0

2017-18 P11

34

5.4

Total

1348

5.4

4). In the last three calendar years (2017, 2016 and 2015) How much money has been spent clearing rubbish from tube platforms that DO NOT have rubbish bins provided?

The costs for clearing rubbish from platforms is not identified separately from the whole of the station environment, including commercial trading (shops and franchises etc ,ticketing and management functions operations and/or from on-train litter picking and other on track maintenance operations . Therefore we do not hold this information.

If this is not the information you are looking for please do not hesitate to contact me.

If you are not satisfied with this response please see the attached information sheet for details of your right to appeal.

Yours sincerely

Graham Hurt

FOI Case Officer

FOI Case Management Team

General Counsel

Transport for London

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