TfL Ref: FOI-4604-2324
Thank you for your request which we received on 14 March 2024.
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 was looking to get the information regarding the square footage for each of the London Underground train stations.
I can advise that information on the sizes of platform tunnels and tunnels between stations can be found in the book ‘Rails through the Clay’.
However, it is not possible to provide the square footage for each London Underground station within the ‘appropriate limit’ of £450 set by the Freedom of Information (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004, because the information you require is not held in a single repository and would have to be manually located. Under section 12 of the FOI, we are not required to respond to a request if it would cost more than £450 to determine if the information is held, and to then locate, retrieve or extract it. This is calculated at a rate of £25 per hour, equivalent to 18 hours work.
While we hold records and drawings of TfL stations, the actual square footage has not been collated / calculated before, nor is it readily to hand. To source it, we would have to manually locate and review historic and recent records for each individual London Underground station. With hundreds of stations covered by the scope of your request this is not feasible within the cost limit.
In order to bring your request within the cost limit you may wish to narrow its scope to focus on the information that is of most importance to you. For example, you may wish to limit the request to a specific station or stations, rather than the entire network.
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 Management Team
General Counsel
Transport for London
