Fuel consumption of prototype NB4L

The request was successful.

Dear Transport for London,

Could I request the following under FoI please:
1) Diesel fuel used by the New Bus For London (NB4L) fleet operating on the 38 route, in litres per month since February 2012
2) Mileage achieved by the NB4L fleet operating on the 38 route, in kilometres per month since February 2012
3) TfL's current estimate of in service fuel consumption for the NB4L fleet on the 38 route in litres per km
4) The test cycle fuel consumption achieved during NB4L vehicle development at Millbrook

Thank you

Yours faithfully,

Tom Barry

FOI, Transport for London

Dear Mr Barry

 

TfL Ref:          FOI-1772-1213

 

Thank you for your e-mail received by Transport for London (TfL) on 18
January 2013 asking for information about the New Bus for London (NB4L).

 

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

 

A response will be provided to you by 15 February 2013.

 

In the meantime, if you would like to discuss this matter further, please
feel free to contact me.

 

Yours sincerely

 

Gemma Jacob

FOI Case Officer

FOI Case Management Team

General Counsel

Transport for London

 

[1][TfL request email]

 

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FOI, Transport for London

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Barry

 

TfL Ref:          FOI-1772-1213

 

Thank you for your e-mail received by Transport for London (TfL) on 18
January 2013 asking for information about the New Bus for London (NB4L).

 

Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of
the Environment Information Regulations (EIR) 2004 and TfL’s information
access policy. I can confirm TfL holds some of the information you
require. You asked for:

 

1.    Diesel fuel used by the New Bus For London (NB4L) fleet operating on
the 38 route, in litres per month since February 2012.

2.    Mileage achieved by the NB4L fleet operating on the 38 route, in
kilometres per month since February 2012.

3.    TfL's current estimate of in service fuel consumption for the NB4L
fleet on the 38 route in litres per km.

 

TfL does not currently hold this information. Data on mileage and fuel
consumption will be published when a statistically robust sample of
production vehicles have been in service for at least six months. This is
anticipated to be published on the TfL website sometime in early 2014. The
eight prototypes are evaluation vehicles that are subject to modification
to achieve the full in-service operational benefits expected, and
represent a stage one version of the vehicle, not the finished product
against which analysis will be more relevant.

 

4.    The test cycle fuel consumption achieved during NB4L vehicle
development at Millbrook.

 

Fuel consumption achieved during the TfL simulated route test cycle was
24.18 l/100km, and provides a like-for-like comparison with similar
double-deck vehicles under identical conditions, carried out by an
independent evaluation facility. Buses in operational services are not
compared with the test protocol as routes vary significantly in length,
distance between stops, topography, traffic encountered, passenger
loadings but will be compared to non-hybrid diesel counterparts so that
clear performance differences can be evaluated.

 

If this is not the information you are looking for 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

 

[1][TfL request email]

 

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Dear Transport for London,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of Transport for London's handling of my FOI request 'Fuel consumption of prototype NB4L'.

The request clearly has not been answered. The justification for not answering appears unclear - either:

1) TfL have not been measuring the fuel consumption of the new bus and therefore hold no data. In this case their public statements that 'we have introduced..Better fuel efficiency with the New Bus for London' on http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/modesoft... and Mayoral pronouncements here http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lon... - are not based on any data. It was to check the validity of these claims in light of a year's operational experience that I put the request in, which seems a reasonable length of time to provide a robust sample of data.

2) TfL do have data about the in service trials on the 38 but are refusing to release it because the production versions which are not yet in service are likely to be more efficient due to the anticipated modifications. However, I did not ask about the production versions, I asked specifically about the vehicles currently in service on the 38 route since February 2012, which are the prototypes. If TfL have this data they should release it. I note that Mike Weston uses presumably TfL held data about hybrid bus fuel efficiency in presentations such as this one last May

http://wp1173759.wp202.webpack.hosteurop... (page 7)

It would seem reasonable given this evidence to expect that data was held about all types of hybrid currently in use.

My complaint is therefore that the FoI response is contradictory and I would like to know which of the above scenarios better reflects reality. If data is being collected about NB4L fuel consumption then I want it released, warts and all. If the review establishes that NB4L prototype in service fuel consumption data is genuinely not being collected I will accept this and put in a further request to establish what statistical basis there is for TfL and Mayoral pronouncements about the improved fuel consumption such as those quoted above.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address:
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/fu...

Yours faithfully,

Tom Barry

FOI, Transport for London

Dear Mr Barry

 

TfL Ref:          IRV-141-1213

 

Thank you for your request for an internal review which was received by
Transport for London (TfL) on 12 February 2013.

 

You have stated that you are dissatisfied with the handling of your
request for information under the Freedom of Information Act and that the
response to your request was incomplete.

 

The review will be conducted by an internal review panel in accordance
with TfL’s Internal Review Procedure, which is available via the following
URL:

 

[1]http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/downloads/f...

 

Every effort will be made to provide you with a response by 12 March 2013.
However, if the review will not be completed by this date, we will contact
you and notify you of the revised response date as soon as possible.

 

In the meantime, if you would like to discuss this matter further, please
feel free to contact me.

 

Yours sincerely

 

Gemma Jacob

FOI Case Officer

FOI Case Management Team

General Counsel

Transport for London

 

[2][TfL request email]

 

From: Tom Barry [mailto:[FOI #146212 email]]
Sent: 12 February 2013 10:18
To: FOI
Subject: Internal review of Freedom of Information request - Fuel
consumption of prototype NB4L

 

     Dear Transport for London,

    

     Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of

     Information reviews.

    

     I am writing to request an internal review of Transport for

     London's handling of my FOI request 'Fuel consumption of prototype

     NB4L'.

    

     The request clearly has not been answered. The justification for

     not answering appears unclear - either:

    

     1) TfL have not been measuring the fuel consumption of the new bus

     and therefore hold no data. In this case their public statements

     that 'we have introduced..Better fuel efficiency with the New Bus

     for London' on

     http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/modesoft... and

     Mayoral pronouncements here

     http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lon... - are not

     based on any data. It was to check the validity of these claims in

     light of a year's operational experience that I put the request in,

     which seems a reasonable length of time to provide a robust sample

     of data.

    

     2) TfL do have data about the in service trials on the 38 but are

     refusing to release it because the production versions which are

     not yet in service are likely to be more efficient due to the

     anticipated modifications. However, I did not ask about the

     production versions, I asked specifically about the vehicles

     currently in service on the 38 route since February 2012, which are

     the prototypes. If TfL have this data they should release it. I

     note that Mike Weston uses presumably TfL held data about hybrid

     bus fuel efficiency in presentations such as this one last May

    

    
http://wp1173759.wp202.webpack.hosteurop...

     (page 7)

    

     It would seem reasonable given this evidence to expect that data

     was held about all types of hybrid currently in use.

    

     My complaint is therefore that the FoI response is contradictory

     and I would like to know which of the above scenarios better

     reflects reality. If data is being collected about NB4L fuel

     consumption then I want it released, warts and all. If the review

     establishes that NB4L prototype in service fuel consumption data is

     genuinely not being collected I will accept this and put in a

     further request to establish what statistical basis there is for

     TfL and Mayoral pronouncements about the improved fuel consumption

     such as those quoted above.

    

     A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is

     available on the Internet at this address:

    
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/fu...

    

     Yours faithfully,

    

     Tom Barry

    

    

    

     -------------------------------------------------------------------

     Please use this email address for all replies to this request:

     [FOI #146212 email]

    

     Disclaimer: This message and any reply that you make will be

     published on the internet. Our privacy and copyright policies:

     http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/help/offic...

    

     If you find this service useful as an FOI officer, please ask your

     web manager to link to us from your organisation's FOI page.

    

     -------------------------------------------------------------------

 

 

References

Visible links
1. http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/downloads/f...
2. mailto:[TfL request email]

Dear Transport for London,

I submitted FoI request TfL ref: IRV-141-1213 on the 18th January 2013. On the 12th February 2013, having had an unsatisfactory and evasive response I requested an internal review, which was originally suggested would finish by the 12th March 2013. It is now some six weeks beyond that date and no further information has been received about the outcome of the review, nor has the original request been answered.

I further note that in the meantime a similar question involving prototype fuel consumption was asked directly to the Mayor by Darren Johnson AM (729 / 2013). The answer likewise omitted any reference to fuel economy while apparently having no problem with releasing information on PM emissions. This clearly indicates that TfL do indeed hold data on the bus's environmental performance.

Can I stress that I am not asking for anything TfL should not have or should not release and that avoiding embarrassment to the Chairman is not a valid FoI exemption ground for any public body. I am therefore giving TfL a final chance to release this information by next Monday (29th April 2013) which marks 100 days since the original request.

If the requested information is still not forthcoming I will have no hesitation in immediately raising the issue with the ICO, as there is a potential wider issue of selective concealment and poor attitude to the legal disclosure duties within TfL that needs to be looked at by the regulatory authority. I believe I will not be the first to take this step.

I am also copying this email to the three Opposition groups on the London Assembly, plus the Mayorwatch blog and the BBC's Tom Edwards, for their information.

Yours faithfully,

Tom Barry

Sloane Peter, Transport for London

Dear Mr Barry

I am contacting you in connection with your request for an internal review of the handling of your reuqst for information concerning the fuel consumption of the prototype NB4L bus. I am sorry that we have not been able to provide you with a substantive response by now, but I would like to provide an update on your request.

The initial finding of the review is to confirm that there are some potential discrepancies in the response and that the reference to the future publication of information of a statistically robust selection of production vehicles does not actually constitute the information that you have requested. It is clear that your request concerned the prototypes currently in use and the fuel use already experienced, and therefore we are seeking confirmation as to exactly what information is held, including whether it is held by any third parties on TfL's behalf, and whether it is held in a form that answers the specific questions that you have raised.

On behalf of TfL please accept my apologies for the delay and I can confirm that I will be in touch with you again as soon as I am able to.

Yours sincerely

Peter Sloane | Senior Information Governance Adviser (Enforcement and Complaints)
Information Governance | General Counsel | Transport for London
Windsor House, 42-50 Victoria Street, London SW1H 0TL
E: [email address]

Personal information plays a critical role in keeping London moving. If you work for TfL or one of its operating subsidiaries, visit source.tfl/privacy to find out more about your role in protecting its security, integrity and availability; and supporting compliance with the Data Protection Act.

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Dear Mr. Sloane,

To say I am underwhelmed with the progress of what is a perfectly simple request is putting it mildly. Indeed, given the blizzard of facts about the New Bus that TfL is putting into the public domain at present (cf. today's Metro) it beggars belief that it apparently takes the thick end of four months to obtain similar data under the legal duties of FoI.

Since TfL have been given a final chance to remedy this fault and have not done so I am therefore left with no option but to raise this matter directly with the ICO as indicated in my reply of 22/4/2013. I will be asking them to investigate the following issues:
1) Were proper investigations made during the initial 20 day period into whether the requested data is held?
2) Why was a contradictory reply allowed to go out?
3) Is relevant data held by TfL or not?
4) Why was the internal review delayed?
5) Is there a pattern of behaviour with TfL's attitude to FoI which correlates with other ICO complaints?

As before copies of all relevant communications will be supplied to the London Assembly Opposition groups, Mayorwatch and the BBC.

Please note that my other outstanding request TfL Ref: FOI-2136-1213, which has been delayed, will also be included in the ICO complaint if no response is supplied by the TfL-supplied deadline of Friday 10th May.

Yours sincerely,

Tom Barry

Sloane Peter, Transport for London

1 Attachment

22 May 2013

 

Our reference: IRV-141-1213

 

Dear Mr Barry

 

I am contacting you in connection with the internal review of the response
to your request for information under the Environmental Information
Regulations 2004 (EIR) concerning the fuel consumption of the prototype
New Bus for London (NB4L) from February 2012 on the 38 bus route. I am
sorry that I have not been able to provide you with this response sooner.

 

I can confirm that the response should not have advised you that TfL does
not hold the requested information, and therefore in failing to confirm
this and provide it to you, TfL was in breach of Regulations 5(1) and (2).
It appears that this was at least in part due to some confusion on the
part of the case officer concerning the data that TfL was intending to
publish once the production fleet had been in service. This was
interpreted as meaning that TfL did not hold the data concerning the
prototypes. It should also have been noted that the production vehicle
fuel consumption was not the same data that you had requested. On behalf
of TfL, please accept my apologies for the confusion.

 

Please see below for the information covered by your request that we do
hold.  However, I can also confirm that TfL only holds some of the
requested information, which we are now providing. TfL only holds fuel
consumption data from June 2012 as we did not start collecting prototype
data until the middle of June last year. The data provided covers from the
latter half of that month to the end of 2012. It is provided in the form
held by TfL, which is collated in periods of four weeks, consistent with
TfL internal reporting practices. The data includes the start and end
dates of each period.

 

Your enquiry covers eight prototype vehicles which are subject to a series
of ongoing modifications to optimise their performance. We consider it is
relevant to bear in mind that the NB4L prototype vehicles are just that –
prototypes – they are used for testing purposes and to inform and refine
the final design of the production vehicles.  The prototypes are heavier
than the production vehicles and have only operated on route 38 during the
day so the fuel consumption data is not representative.

 

Fuel Dispensed and KMs Covered Table

 

 

Despite not being the production model, the prototypes have achieved a
fleet average of 6.74mpg in recent weeks – this is significantly better
than the standard diesel buses operating on the route 38. 

 

For comparison purposes, double deck hybrid buses operating on route 73
are achieving 6.1mpg and diesel buses are achieving 5.3mpg.  We do not
therefore consider the fuel economy data for the prototype vehicles to be
valid for comparison purposes.  This is because there is no statistical
data available for other hybrid double deck buses when they were in
prototype form. There are no other hybrid buses operating on route 38
which could provide a direct comparison.  The route 73 is similar to the
route 38 in that it covers a relatively short end-to-end distance, is a
high-frequency service and involves many interruptions from signals and
traffic as it passes through dense parts of the capital.

 

We estimate the production vehicles will deliver approximately 1mpg
improvement on the prototype vehicles.  We also expect improvements to
result from the buses operating over longer distances and over longer
periods of time (route 24 is a 24-hour route). 

 

It may be of interest to you that fuel consumption will be higher for
prototypes compared to the production vehicles for the following reasons:-

 

(a)     The purpose of prototyping is to modify and optimise a vehicle
during its development stage and during the period a number of
modifications have been trialled.

(b)     Fuel efficiency is expected to improve as changes are made,
evaluated, revised and re-calibrated. The prototypes are a work in
progress, whereas production vehicles are the finished article and should
perform to a consistently high level.

(c)     They do not operate a full operating day where the benefits of
hybrid technology are greater.

(d)     They are heavier than production vehicles. The production vehicles
are subject to series of weight-saving modifications to yield further fuel
efficiency gains.

(e)     They have frequently been taken out of service to attend
promotional events in the UK due their high public profile.  On these
occasions the buses operate in diesel mode which is not as efficient.

(f)      In the period under review there have been occasions when the
buses have operated in diesel-only mode, temporarily negating the benefits
of electric-only operation and regenerative braking.  A technical issue
with battery-management software has now been rectified.

(g)     During June and July there were issues with the air-chill systems
which resulted in higher fuel consumption but these have since been
resolved.

(h)    They were phased into service from February to July last year
rather than introduced en bloc so kilometreage was low initially, then
rose to a higher level as more vehicles operated concurrently

 

The New Bus for London production vehicles are now rolling out of the
Wrightbus factory.  They will be used on the route 24 – which will become
the first bus route in the capital to operate entirely with New Bus for
London vehicles from 22 June.  The production vehicles are lighter and
have a number of modifications and technical enhancements that will
deliver improvements to fuel economy. 

 

We intend to make fuel economy data for the New Bus for London available
next year when the production vehicles have been operating in passenger
service for at least six months on route 24.  This data will allow
meaningful comparison with conventional diesel buses currently operating
on the same route in the same conditions and with similar passenger
demand.   

 

Once again, on behalf of TfL, please accept my apologies for the
shortcomings in the original response and for the delay in providing you
with this review. However, if you are dissatisfied with the outcome of
this internal review, you can refer the matter to the independent
authority responsible for enforcing the Environmental Information
Regulations, at the following address.

 

Information Commissioner’s Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire SK9 5AF

 

A complaint form is also available on the ICO’s website
([1]www.ico.gov.uk).

 

Peter Sloane | Senior Information Governance Adviser (Enforcement and
Complaints)

Information Governance | General Counsel | Transport for London

Windsor House, 42-50 Victoria Street, London SW1H 0TL

E: [2][email address]

 

Personal information plays a critical role in keeping London moving. If
you work for TfL or one of its operating subsidiaries, visit
[3]source.tfl/privacy to find out more about your role in protecting its
security, integrity and availability; and supporting compliance with the
Data Protection Act.

 

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References

Visible links
1. http://www.ico.gov.uk/
2. mailto:[email address]
3. http://source.tfl/privacy

phil left an annotation ()

May i congratulate Tom Barry in his efforts to reveal this information, I am sure he is in the running for the annual dog with a bone award or/and how to be a PITA (pain in the a*se !
I have been searching for the follow up information regarding route 24, have you been enlightened ?
Regards Phil