FoI request, recorded bus times and occupancy rates on route 249
Request ID: FOI-4135-2324 Date published: 22 February 2024
You asked
Dear FoI people,
Please could you send me the bus arrival times and bus occupancy rates for buses on the 249 route. (Please note that at the same time as this request I am making similar requests for four other routes.)
I need this data to start on 1 October 2022 please, and to end on the latest possible date (the date that you fulfil this request, if possible, or at least the date of this request).
I would like the arrival time data in the most detailed or granular form possible, with no aggregation. The data should include arrival times at all the bus stops between the timing points of
Tooting Bec Station, Tooting Bec Road (TBSNTB)
and
Norwood, Crown Point (NORWCP)
in both directions. It should ideally follow as far as possible the format of the data you supplied in FoI 3214-2324, with one row for each bus, and an arrival time given for each stop on the route (except, as in 3214-2324, where no time is available and text explanation for the missing time is given – “Lost due to Mechanical Failure”, “Lost due to Traffic”, etc – although these text explanations are not essential).
In the interests of reducing the size of the data file, the data could at your discretion be provided only for services that arrived at the first stop (Tooting Bec Station, Tooting Bec Road or Norwood, Crown Point, depending on the direction of travel) between 7am and 7pm.
I assume that isn’t too much data, from a technical or file size point of view – around 500 days with maybe 100 buses per day in each of two directions, should be somewhere in the region of 100,000 rows of data. Obviously please let me know if there is in fact a technical issue that I’m not aware of, with providing this amount of data.
Please could you also provide me with bus occupancy rates for the same route, and at the same bus stops. This data could be included in the bus arrival times file if you think it appropriate. But alternatively it could be a separate file, and some aggregation of the data would be acceptable, but not beyond an hourly level please, if possible. That is, I’m asking for either:
- bus occupancy for each bus, at each stop, on the route between TBSNTB and NORWCP, in both directions, since 1 October 2022, or
- for average bus occupancy, at each stop, on the route between TBSNTB and NORWCP, in both directions for each individual hour of each individual day since 1 October 2022.
Similarly to the arrival times request, the bus occupancy request could also cover only the hours of 7am to 7pm, at your discretion.
Many thanks for your help with this - it will be much appreciated.
We answered
Our ref: FOI-4135-2324/GH
Thank you for your requests received by Transport for London (TfL) on 12 February 2024 asking for information about bus route 249.
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 the information you require.
The first spreadsheets have data provided by route/trip/stoppoint between 01/10/2022 and 09/02/2024. The file shows stop departure times, not arrival times, as we only report buses upon their departure. The last spreadsheet gives occupancy information. We have provided the average hourly bus occupancy for each date and bus stop within the requested segment between 1 October 2022 and 9 February 2024, which is the most recent date we currently have occupancy data for. The average bus occupancy per hour is calculated over all buses which had their actual departure time from the stop in question within this hour. For example, hour 7 refers to the average occupancy over all buses which departed from this stop between 07:00:00 and 07:59:59 that day. Occupancy data is provided between 07:00 and 19:00. The occupancy data is not retained for 6 July 2023 and 22 July 2023 for this route.
The data provided is the estimated bus occupancy based on the number of boarding passengers at each bus stop and the inferred alighting stop for each passenger. The occupancy, indicated by the column DepartureLoad, is the estimated occupancy upon departure from the stop. The occupancy is only based on passengers who used Oyster or Contactless for their travel. Passengers using paper tickets or not validating upon boarding are not included.
Please let me know if this is not the information you are looking for, or if you are unable to access it for some reason.
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
