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Dear Mr Bradford

TfL Ref: 0680-2425

Thank you for your request received by Transport for London (TfL) on 28
May 2024 asking for information about overcrowding at Victoria underground
station on 28 May 2024.

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 24 June 2024. 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

Sara Thomas

FOI Case Management Team

General Counsel

Transport for London

show quoted sections

Dear Mr Bradford

TfL Ref: 0680-2425

Thank you for your request received by Transport for London (TfL) on 28
May 2024 asking for information about overcrowding at Victoria underground
station on 28 May 2024.

Your request has been considered under the requirements of the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 and our information access policy. I can confirm that
we do hold the information you require. Your specific questions and our
replies are as follows:

Due to overcrowding at/within Victoria underground station at approx. 9am
on 28th May,  TFL made the decision to close access to the District line
platforms and instruct passing District/Circle line trains to not stop at
this station. Many people thus remained on a crowded platform with trains
passing - trains passing which had plenty of capacity to onboard
passengers.

Platform staff could not explain this, with one saying he has never seen
trains being instructed not to stop at an overcrowded platform.

Can you please:

1) Explain why this unusual course of action was taken on this day.

On this particular day there were service problems on the Victoria line
from start of traffic due to points failing in the Brixton area and a
special service was introduced reducing the service from 36 trains per
hour to 20 trains per hour.

This is not an unusual course of action at Victoria, to relieve congestion
on the Victoria line the Customer Service Supervisor will follow the
Congestion Control & Evacuation Plan (CCEP) for the station.

2) Provide any operational/post event report (or the like) covering this
situation on this day, explaining what had happened and why the decisions
were made. Please include the position title of person(s) making the
decision

The Customer Service Supervisor is in charge of making safety critical
decisions; congestion was building up on the Victoria line platforms and
to alleviate this, the interchange between the District & Victoria
platforms was stopped by non-stopping on the district platforms. Please
see a copy of the reports attached as requested.

Also please note that in accordance with TfL’s obligations under the Data
Protection Act 1998 (DPA) 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 DPA, specifically the first
principle of the DPA 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 of Schedule 2 of the Data
Protection Act which would make the processing ‘fair’.

3) Provide any relevant TFL guidance/policy for operational staff on how
to act in situations of station/platform overcrowding which specifically
calls out the action to instruct trains NOT to stop at the overcrowded
station/platform

In accordance with the FOI Act, we are not obliged to supply the
Congestion Control & Evacuation Plan (which is the relevant policy), as
requested as it is subject to statutory exemptions to the right of access
to information, under sections 24 - national security - and 38(1)(b) -
health and safety  - of the FOI Act. In this instance the exemptions have
been applied as disclosure of this information could adversely affect the
safety and security of TfL employees and members of the general public.

Whilst we make no suggestion that you would use this information for
anything other than you own personal interest, disclosure of this
information to you has to be regarded as a disclosure to ‘the public at
large’. This information could potentially be obtained and utilised by
individuals who may wish to use this information to cause disruption or
harm to the London Underground network and other transport modes. The
public transport system is an attractive terrorist target for several
reasons including, its importance to London and the knock-on effect to the
nation’s economy if it is disrupted, the publicity gained from attacking
an iconic transport system and the attractiveness of the system for a mass
casualty attack due to its open, mass transport nature. It is also part of
the nation’s critical infrastructure by virtue of its central importance
to the functioning of London and its economy. Disclosure of information
could compromise security and safety preparedness on the transport network
and would place members of the public and TfL staff at risk by
highlighting areas on the network which could be susceptible to being
targeted.

The Information Commissioner’s Office has previously issued a Decision
Notice regarding the application of sections 24 and 38 to withhold
information in relation to security at transport hubs. Whilst the
information requested in this case is different to the information you
have requested, we believe the same arguments can be applied:

[1]https://ico.org.uk/media/action-weve-tak...

The use of these exemptions are subject to an assessment of the public
interest in relation to the disclosure of the information concerned. We
recognise the need for openness and transparency by public authorities and
acknowledge that there may be some interest in the information in
question. However, as we believe this information could potentially be
obtained and utilised by individuals who may wish to use it to cause
disruption or harm to London’s transport infrastructure, in this instance
we believe that minimising the risk to that infrastructure and protecting
the safety and welfare of members of the general public and our staff
outweighs the limited public interest in disclosure.

If this is not the information you are looking for, or if you are unable
to access it for some reason, please feel free to contact me.

Please see the attached information sheet for details of your right to
appeal as well as information on copyright and what to do if you would
like to re-use any of the information we have disclosed.

Yours sincerely

Sara Thomas

FOI Case Officer

FOI Case Management Team

General Counsel

Transport for London

From: FOI
Sent: 30 May 2024 16:07
To: 'David Bradford' <[2][FOI #1134787 email]>
Subject: new foi ref 0680-2425 CRM:0138872

Dear Mr Bradford

TfL Ref: 0680-2425

Thank you for your request received by Transport for London (TfL) on 28
May 2024 asking for information about overcrowding at Victoria underground
station on 28 May 2024.

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 24 June 2024. 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
[3]http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/transpar... to see if this helps you.

We will publish anonymised versions of requests and responses on the
[4]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

Sara Thomas

FOI Case Management Team

General Counsel

Transport for London

show quoted sections

Dear David Bradford,

TfL Ref: FOI-1056-2425

Thank you for your further request received by Transport for London (TfL)
on 1 July 2024 asking for information about overcrowding at Victoria
underground station.

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

A response will be sent to you by 29 July 2024. 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... 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,

Mary Abidakun

FOI Case Officer

FOI Case Management Team

General Counsel

Transport for London

show quoted sections

Dear David Bradford,

TfL Ref: FOI-1056-2425

Thank you for your further request received by Transport for London (TfL)
on 1 July 2024 asking for information about overcrowding at Victoria
underground station on 28 May 2024.

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 hold the information you require.

Specifically you asked:

“The Customer Service Supervisor is in charge of making safety critical
decisions; congestion was building up on the Victoria line platforms and
to alleviate this, the interchange between the District & Victoria
platforms was stopped by non-stopping on the district platform"

Can you clarify how non-stopping District line trains - on both platforms
-  stops the interchange between the District & Victoria lines?

On this particular day, the Victoria line service experienced major
disruption in service, which impacted customers on the Victoria line
platform and lead to congestion on the Victoria line platforms.

To manage the crowd levels, customer flow will be controlled to the
Victoria line platforms and circulating areas at the top of the escalator
from the interchange level.

To minimise the risk of compromising the station evacuation plan in case
of an emergency, temporary measures will be implemented for brief periods,
depending on the duration of this service delay, to aid service recovery:
 

 1. The station supervisor will implement other control measures, which
include the option to ask the District line service to non-stop
temporarily. As the majority of our customers will transfer from the
District line to the Victoria line platforms, this will prevent
additional customer build-up in the interchange and keep evacuation
routes clear.

 2. Customer flow to all platforms will be managed at the ticket hall
level or stopped if necessary, maintaining the platform at a
manageable level.

We hope this clarifies our position.

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

Yours sincerely,

Mary Abidakun

FOI Case Officer

FOI Case Management Team

General Counsel

Transport for London

show quoted sections