Our Ref: FOI-4785-1718

Thank you for your query received on 8 Mach 2018 asking for information about usage of the TfL transport network.

Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act and TfL’s 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.

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 over 18 working hours to retrieve and compile the information you have requested.

Several billion journeys are made on our network in one year alone. You have requested detailed data across all of our services for over seven years that will be held by different business areas that will all need to be collated.

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 would like to resubmit your request you should take a look at the information that we already publish regarding network usage which includes network statistics and Rolling Origin & Destination Survey (RODS) data as this will help you to see the sort of information we hold:

https://tfl.gov.uk/info-for/open-data-users/our-open-data

In addition, information on seasonal variations can be obtained from our Quarterly Performance reports:

https://tfl.gov.uk/corporate/publications-and-reports/quarterly-progress-reports

For example, the 2017/18 Q2 report provides information for Summer 2017 (June-September).

If you want to refine your request or make a Freedom of Information Act request in future, please bear in mind that the Freedom of Information Act allows you to request recorded information held by Transport for London. 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. You might also consider limiting your request to a particular period of time, geographical area or specific departments of TfL.

Although your request can take the form of a question, rather than a request for specific documents, TfL does 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.

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 feel free to contact me.

Please see the attached information sheet for details of your right to appeal.

Yours sincerely

Gemma Jacob
FOI Case Officer
FOI Case Management Team
General Counsel
Transport for London

[email protected]