Dear Mr Davis

TfL Ref: FOI-2053-1920

Thank you for your request received by Transport for London (TfL) on 7
October 2019 asking for information about buses.

Your request will be processed in accordance with the requirements of the
Freedom of Information Act and our information access policy.

A response will be sent to you by 4 November 2019. We publish a
substantial range of information on our website on subjects including
operational performance, contracts, expenditure, journey data, governance
and our financial performance. This includes data which is frequently
asked for in FOI requests or other public queries. Please check
[1]http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/transpar... to see if this helps you.

We will publish anonymised versions of requests and responses on the
[2]www.tfl.gov.uk website. We will not publish your name and we will send
a copy of the response to you before it is published on our website.

In the meantime, if you would like to discuss this matter further, please
do not hesitate to contact me.

Yours sincerely

Melissa Nichols

FOI Case Officer

FOI Case Management Team

General Counsel

Transport for London

dangos adrannau a ddyfynnir

Dear Mr Davis

TfL Ref: FOI-2053-1920

Thank you for your email received by us on 7 October 2019 asking for
information about buses.

Your request is being considered in accordance with the requirements of
the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act and our information access policy.  I
can confirm we hold some of the information you require.

However, in accordance with Section 17 of the Freedom of Information Act
we are still considering the balance of the public interest in relation to
a qualified exemption that applies to the requested information and have
not yet reached a conclusion. The exemption under consideration is s43 –
commercial interests. It is estimated that a decision will be reached by 3
December 2019 and I will write again to inform you of that decision.

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

Yours sincerely

Melissa Nichols

FOI Case Officer

FOI Case Management Team

General Counsel

Transport for London

dangos adrannau a ddyfynnir

Dear Mr Davis,

Our ref: FOI-2053-1920

Thank you for your request received by Transport for London (TfL) on 7
October 2019 asking for information about buses.

Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of
the Freedom of Information Act and our Information Access Policy. I can
confirm we do hold the information you requested. You asked:

1. What is the purpose of changing the boarding of the New Routemaster
buses?

We are changing to front-door boarding to reduce the likelihood of
customers coming on board without paying and reduce customer complaints
about this issue. This will help reduce fare evasion which is currently
more than double the rate on New Routemasters than elsewhere and is taking
away revenue we need to invest in improving transport for everyone. There
will also be accessibility benefits as wheelchairs will still be able to
use the middle doors and will find it easier to access the priority space
on boards. Our last estimates for fare evasion on NRMs indicated around
£3.6 million is lost each year.

2. What are the results of the front door only boarding pilot scheme for
route 8?

Early indications are that fare evasion has fallen sharply on route 8 and
the night route N8.

3. According to the 'TfL contracts greater than £5,000', can you provide a
document of the contract titled
"tfl_scp_001905_NRM_Passenger_Door_Upgrade".

4. What is the expected cost of the project to convert NRMs to front door
boarding only?

Please find attached the document you requested.

In accordance with the FOI Act, financial information has been redacted as
it is subject to a statutory exemption to the right of access to
information under section 43(2).

In this instance the exemption has been applied as disclosure of financial
discussions would be likely to prejudice our commercial interests.
Disclosing financial information would be likely to prejudice our
commercial interests as it would be likely to adversely affect the amount
we obtain through our future negotiations with commercial partners.

The use of this exemption is subject to an assessment of the public
interest in relation to the disclosure of the information concerned. TfL
recognises the need for openness and transparency by public authorities,
particularly where the use of public assets, but in this instance the
public interest in ensuring that TfL is able to obtain the best value from
public assets, outweighs the general public interest in increasing
transparency of TfL’s processes.

Further, please note that in accordance with TfL’s obligations under Data
Protection legislation some personal data has been removed, as required by
section 40(2) of the FOI Act. This is because disclosure of this personal
data would be a breach of the legislation, specifically the first
principle which requires all processing of personal data to be fair and
lawful. It would not be fair to disclose this personal information when
the individuals have no expectation it would be disclosed and TfL has not
satisfied one of the conditions which would make the processing ‘fair’.

5. Are there any disruption to the project as Wrightbus has gone to
administration?

We are still looking to roll out the change to the rest of our NRM fleet
by early 2020 and we have recruited a senior Wrightbus engineer to assist
with this programme. We are in discussions with Bamford Bus Company who
have taken over Wrightbus to ensure we can continue with as little
disruption as possible.

6. Why TfL and Wrightbus provide one button to open all three doors in the
NRM driver's cab?

At the time the buses were built, three door boarding and alighting was
envisaged as the normal mode of operation.

7. Why TfL withdrawn NRM conductors during year 2016? Can you provide full
details about the withdrawal of conductors on NRM routes?

We phased out conductors on routes 9, 10, 11, 24, 38 and 390 to reduce
operating costs on these routes by around £10 million a year. This
initiative happened at a time when TfL’s direct income from central
Government was reducing and it was moving to being an entirely-self
funding public body.

8. Does TfL plan to purchase new buses with three doors and two staircases
in the future?

We have no plans to directly procure similar buses to the NRMs.

9. Why did TfL withdraw bendy buses on the grounds of reducing fare
evasion during year 2011?

This decision was made based on a Mayoralty priority.

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,

Melissa Nichols

FOI Case Officer

General Counsel

Transport for London

dangos adrannau a ddyfynnir