Request ID: FOI-4376-2324 Date published: 22 March 2024
You asked
Further to reports that £6.3 million was spent on the project to rename and recolour all six Overground rail lines please provide a detailed breakdown for how this money was spent.
Please also provide copies of any email correspondence relating to this project.
We answered
Our Ref: FOI-4376-2324
Thank you for your request received on 29 February 2024 asking for information about the renaming of the London Overground line.
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 that we do hold the information you require.
When naming the London Overground lines, the aim was to develop the names in a collaborative and inclusive way, and use this as an opportunity to celebrate London, its diversity and culture, ensuring that more Londoners feel connected to the transport network they use every day. Therefore, it was integral that we engaged with communities as part of this project, as opposed to naming the lines internally.
Stakeholders, customers, historians, industry experts and communities played a key role in informing the new names through independent engagement which took place ahead of the decision on the final six names. This was key as London’s diverse history and culture has always played a significant role in shaping the city, and we wanted the names to reflect London's diverse culture and communities.
Making the network easier to navigate and more inclusive is a priority for both us and the Mayor. Naming the six routes of the London Overground aims to give customers, especially those unfamiliar with the network, more confidence to travel around London. Removing this barrier to travel could see more people choosing to travel sustainably, which would benefit the whole city.
We will be running an extensive campaign over the summer to help customers get familiar with the names. We have also enhanced our signage & wayfinding standards, so that signs include the line names and colour along with the Overground roundel.
More information about the renaming can be found on our website:
Further to reports that £6.3 million was spent on the project to rename and recolour all six Overground rail lines please provide a detailed breakdown for how this money was spent.
This change was needed because the evidence we have is that the current approach is confusing for customers, especially those visiting or using the network less regularly.
The project has an estimated cost of £6.3m; the budget has been provided by the GLA. The budget is for the entirety of the project and has been split over financial year 23/24 and 24/25. The majority of the budget allocated for the London Overground naming will be used to update customer information. This includes updates to all digital information, TfL Go, Journey Planner, Station digital screens, around 6,000 station wayfinding signs, in train maps and information and all Tube maps.
Any future maintenance/replacement of the signs will be included as part of the regular maintenance carried out on our entire network.
Please find a breakdown of these costs below:
Activity – headline
Activity – detail
Budget
The below budget breakdown is for the entity of the project from feasibility through to project completion in 2025
Customer information and research
Changing all tube maps i.e. on-train tube maps, Step-free access, black & white, car line diagrams, pocket tube maps
£1,149,209
Design, signage and wayfinding
Replacing signage including London Overground (LO) station wayfinding, LO step free access at all 113 LO stations
£2,322,544
Digital & Systems
Updating TfL Go, Electronic Service Update boards (ESUBs) and other digital channels and products including operational systems
£748,111
Fleet signage & on train updates
Manufacturing and installing LO on-train car line diagrams and updating the passenger information system
£870,000
Customer awareness building and community engagement
Communications and associated activity to build awareness and familiarisation for customers across the six lines and pan London
£717,172
Internal & project resource
Project management additional resource and additional resource in Customer, Marketing, & Operational Readiness
£377,364
Engagement programme by DNCO
Engagement programme by DNCO
£115,600
£6,300,000
Please also provide copies of any email correspondence relating to this project.
Unfortunately, to provide the information you have requested would exceed the ‘appropriate limit’ of £450 set by the FOI (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.
We have estimated that it would cost over £450 to provide a response to your current request. This is because it is estimated that it would take in excess of 18 working hours to retrieve and compile the information you have requested.
Discussions regarding the renaming of the London Overground date back to the summer of 2022. During this time several teams will have been involved in the renaming project, including but not limited to teams within London Overground, Marketing, and the Press Office. It would require several teams to do a search for any information relevant to your request. Please note that we do not hold the raw data from the stakeholder engagement exercises carried out by DNCO.
We would need to manually review all of the emails identified by the search in order to extract and collate the relevant emails. However, it would not be an exhaustive search and it is unlikely to capture all of the relevant information as other terms may have been used. The search results will likely include duplicates, as well as emails not caught by the request. However, we would need to manually review all of the emails identified by the search in order to extract and collate the relevant emails.
Whilst the process of redaction does not feature as part of our considerations on whether the cost limit might apply, the burden created by non-specific requests for emails is significant and this should be borne in mind before submitting requests of this nature. By their nature, emails contain a significant amount of personal data such as phone numbers and email addresses, and so would need to be reviewed for any necessary redaction. You have also specified information about contracts and procurement records it is also likely that we would need to review to determine whether any of the information could be commercially sensitive.
The Information Commissioner describes such requests as “fishing expeditions” as the requesters “have no idea what information, if any, will be caught by the request”. Such requests are likely to be vexatious if they: • Impose a burden by obliging the authority to sift through a substantial volume of information to isolate and extract the relevant details; • Encompass information which is only of limited value because of the wide scope of the request; • Create a burden by requiring the authority to spend a considerable amount of time considering any exemptions and redactions; • Be part of a pattern of persistent fishing expeditions by the same requester.
We therefore strongly recommend you outline, as clearly and concisely as possible, precisely the information and types of document you require. Requests that lack a clear focus are more likely to lead to concerns about the processing time required to meet our obligations under the FOI Act.
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. If you want to refine your request or make a FOI Act request in future, please bear in mind that the FOI Act allows you to request recorded information held by us. You should identify the information that you want as clearly and concisely as you can, specifying the types of document that you are looking for. If there are specific questions you have then we may be able to provide a response to those.
Although your request can take the form of a question, rather than a request for specific documents, we do not have to answer your question if it would require the creation of new information or the provision of a judgement, explanation, advice or opinion that was not already recorded at the time of your request. If this is not the information you are looking for please do not hesitate to contact me.
Please see the attached information sheet for details of your right to appeal.
Yours sincerely
Gemma Jacob Senior FOI Case Officer FOI Case Management Team General Counsel Transport for London
