Hi there, I am writing to you to make an open government request for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. Please could you confirm that TfL is investigating the smell at Kennington underground station? I would also like to know how much has been spent on investigating this issue so far, and how much Tfl expect to spend? Please could you also let me know if there have been any findings. If there has been any correspondence between TfL and the police in 2019 regarding the smell at kennington station please could you also send this. Thanks for your help and please let me know if you have any questions.

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TfL Ref: 3084-1920

Thank you for your request received by Transport for London (TfL) on 14 January 2020 asking for information about Kennington station.

Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Environmental Information Regulations and our information access policy. I can confirm that we hold some of the information you require. Your questions and our responses are as follows:

Please could you confirm that TfL is investigating the smell at Kennington underground station?

Yes, we are actively looking to address this issue. The smell emanates from water in the track ballast in the Kennington loop. A number of tests have been carried out on the water to determine what caused the smell. We have diverted the inflow of new water (clean ground water) following works on the Northern Line Extension (NLE) which was mixing into old ballast and then raising the smell up to the station. Now that we have diverted the water and work is under way to dig out the ballast over 400m of the loop and further works will ensure that the drainage is checked and made good to allow all the water to flow through the sump pump thus stopping the smells from building in the future.

I would also like to know how much has been spent on investigating this issue so far, and how much Tfl expect to spend?

Costs have been incurred over a long period and have been absorbed by a number of business areas including the NLE team and have often been recorded as incidental to business as usual and therefore it is not possible to extract from other business costs as a single element. Therefore we do not hold information in relation to the costs specific to this incident.

Please could you also let me know if there have been any findings.

Please see our response to question 1 above.

If there has been any correspondence between TfL and the police in 2019 regarding the smell at Kennington station please could you also send this.

There has been no correspondence with the police on this issue, therefore we do not hold information on this part of your request.

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 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

Sara Thomas

FOI Case Management Team

General Counsel

Transport for London

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