I’d like to make a request under the Freedom of Information Act about refunds for incomplete journeys. How many refunds were paid in total over the last five years, across payment methods, to passengers had been charged a maximum fare for an incomplete journey but later applied for a manual refund? What was the total value of these refunds? If possible could this be broken down by the payment method used, ie contactless or Oyster card? Could it also be broken down by calendar year?

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TfL Ref: FOI-3629-1920

Thank you for your email received by Transport for London (TfL) on 21 February 2020.

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 we hold some of the information you require.

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.

You asked:

How many refunds were paid in total over the last five years, across payment methods, to passengers had been charged a maximum fare for an incomplete journey but later applied for a manual refund? What was the total value of these refunds? If possible could this be broken down by the payment method used, ie contactless or Oyster card? Could it also be broken down by calendar year?

We have estimated that it would considerably exceed the cost to provide a response to your current request.

The below breakdown shows the number of incomplete journeys and the revenue associated with them for the last 5 years, split between Oyster and Contactless pay as you go.

However, we are unable to provide how many of those later applied for a manual refund.

Unfortunately, there is no developed report that would allow us to extract and present the data in the format you require. To fulfil your request would require manually assessing each Oyster and Contactless incomplete journey to try to link it to every manual refund request submitted for the above years. Consequently, to provide such data would exceed the ‘appropriate limit’ of £450 set by the Freedom of Information (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004.

Furthermore, we do not hold data for some manual refunds going back over the last 5 years, including self-serve refunds for incomplete pay as you go journeys and corrections of incomplete journeys for Oyster made at stations.

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. You might consider limiting your request to a much shorter period of time. 

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.

Yours sincerely

Eva Hextall

FOI Case Officer

FOI Case Management Team

General Counsel

Transport for London

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