Dear TFL I would like to make a freedom of information request about line closures due to planned engineering work for TFL Rail/Crossrail/Elizabeth Line between London Liverpool St and Shenfield stations between the dates of 1st December 2015 and 3rd June 2018. I would like to know specifically: 1) The dates on which the decision to close the line due to planned engineering works was made. 2) I would also like to know the dates when these line closures for planned engineering works were announced publically to TFL customers? Although this is a large date range, closures tend to come in groups of weekends and so I do not believe this would be excessive work to gather the data. I have searched for this information online and could not find it. I have previously made a request FOI-4451-1617 which was refused under section 12 of FOI Regulations 2004. Although I do not believe this was a just reason, I have decided not to appeal it and therefore accept your decision. I hope this request is easier for you to process.

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Dear

Our ref: FOI-4830-1718

Thank you for your revised request received by Transport for London (TfL) on 13 March 2018 asking for information about engineering works. Please accept my sincere apology for the delay in responding to you.

Your request has been processed in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act and our information access policy. You asked:

I would like to make a freedom of information request about line closures due to planned engineering work for TFL Rail/Crossrail/Elizabeth Line between London Liverpool St and Shenfield stations between the dates of 1st December 2015 and 3rd June 2018.

1)      The dates on which the decision to close the line due to planned engineering works was made.

Unfortunately, we do not hold this information. Your question about when the decision was made should be answered by Network Rail who plan engineering works, please contact them for this information. They can be contacted at [email protected]

2)      I would also like to know the dates when these line closures for planned engineering works were announced publically to TFL customers?

We do not have a central record of when line closure information is announced to the public. Engineering works and closures are made available on the TfL website typically 6 months before taking place. Then there will be more communication in the weeks leading up to the closure, with posters put up 7 days in advance, PA announcements starting on the station on the Tuesday leading up to the closure. There will be main closures such as Christmas and Easter holidays that are communicated to the public even earlier. This is all in line with our policy, but not something we hold a record on.

As advised previously, to provide you with this information would exceed the ‘appropriate limit’ of £450 set by the Freedom of Information (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004. This is because we use numerous channels to communicate closures including online, social media, station information and announcements. It would take a vast amount of time to establish the dates for all closure announcements since December 2015.

Please see the following links for track closure announcements:

• Press releases: https://tfl.gov.uk/info-for/media/press-releases
• Six month look ahead: http://content.tfl.gov.uk/track-closures.pdf
• Planned works: https://tfl.gov.uk/status-updates/planned-works-calendar

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

Yours sincerely

Eva Hextall

FOI Case Officer

FOI Case Management Team

General Counsel

Transport for London

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