TfL Ref: FOI-4293-2324
Thank you for your request of 23rd February 2024 asking for information about the manual operation of trains on the London Underground.
Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act and our information access policy.
Specifically you asked:
“I am writing to request information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 regarding driver interventions on the Victoria, Central, and Jubilee lines of the London Underground, which are known to employ Automatic Train Operation (ATO) systems. My request specifically concerns the frequency and nature of these interventions, which I understand to be critical for maintaining safety and operational efficiency on these lines.
1. Number of Driver Interventions for Manual Train Operation:
How many times have drivers had to take manual control of the train on the Victoria, Central, and Jubilee lines in the past three years? Please provide annual figures.
What were the reasons for these interventions? (e.g., system failures, safety concerns)
2. Driver Interventions in Response to Passenger Emergencies:
How many passenger emergencies on the Victoria, Central, and Jubilee lines required direct driver intervention in the past three years? Please provide annual figures.
What types of emergencies were these? (e.g., medical incidents, security threats)
3. Impact of Driver Interventions on Service:
To what extent did these driver interventions affect the regular service schedules on the Victoria, Central, and Jubilee lines? (e.g., delays, temporary suspensions)”.
I am afraid it is not possible to source the information to answer these questions within the costs limit for responding to FOI requests, as set out under section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act. Under section 12 TfL is not required to provide information if it would cost more than £450 to determine if that information is held, and to then locate, retrieve or extract it from elsewhere. This is calculated at a rate of £25 per hour, equivalent to 18 hours work.
In this instance the exemption applies because the requested information has not been collated before, and there is no quick, efficient or automated way of doing so. Rather, this data will be held within individual electronic incident reporting forms (EIRFs) that are filled out by staff in the course of their duties. However, these forms can be used to record various different kinds of incident that may occur on the network, not just in relation to the manual operation of trains. To extract the information that relates specifically to this matter could only be achieved by conducting a manual trawl of all such reports on an individual basis. Given that there are thousands of such reports, this is not possible within the costs limit.
In order to bring your request within the costs limit you may wish to reframe it to narrow its scope. However, note that any request that requires the manual trawl of records is likely to trigger the costs exemption, unless the timeframe to which it relates is extremely limited.
Please see the attached information sheet for details of your right to appeal.
Yours sincerely,
David Wells
FOI Case Officer
FOI Case Management Team
General Counsel
Transport for London
