Oyster payment corrections because of operational issues

Helena Blackstone made this Freedom of Information request to Transport for London This request has been closed to new correspondence. Contact us if you think it should be reopened.

The request was partially successful.

Helena Blackstone

Dear Transport for London,

On 31st October I received the following email from Transport for London:

“Dear Helena Blackstone

Due to an operational issue, you are due a payment of £2.90. This is now ready for collection at Belsize Park.

Payment correction details:
Reason: Payment correction because of an operational issue
Value: [Redacted - WhatDoTheyKnow team]
Reference: [Redacted - WhatDoTheyKnow team]
Collection location: [Redacted - WhatDoTheyKnow team]
Status: Ready for collection with Oyster card number [Redacted - WhatDoTheyKnow team]

To collect your payment, touch your Oyster card on a yellow reader at the location shown above when you start a journey.

Please keep your Oyster card number safe. You may need to quote it if you call TfL Customer Services (0343 222 1234).

Yours sincerely,
Volkan Altinok
Volkan Altinok
First Contact Manager"

If it is not possible to answer any of my questions for reasons of the data not being held or because they require an outlandish amount of labour that will bring the request outside of budget constraints, please leave those answers out but respond to the other questions.

Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 I seek access to the following information:

As I understand it, I would not have been able to receive such an email as the above and would not have the opportunity to receive a refund if my Oyster card had been unregistered. Is this correct?

How much money was retained due to unreclaimed refunds existing because of operational issues in the years 2012, 2013 and the first ten months of 2014.

The information in answer to question 2 broken down by station.

How much money was retained due to unreclaimed refunds existing because of operational issues in journeys beginning or ending in Camden Town Underground station, in the years 2012, 2013 and the first ten months of 2014.

5) The possible reasons these operational issues resulting in refunds occur.

6) The number of operational issues resulting in refunds due that occurred in calendar years 2012, 2013 and the first 10 months of 2014.

7) The numbers for question 6 broken down by reason for the operational issue.

8) The number of operational issues that occurred for journeys beginning or ending in Camden Town Underground station in calendar years 2012, 2013 and the first 10 months of 2014?

9) The numbers for question 8 broken down by reason for the operational issue.

I would prefer to receive this information electronically, preferably as a data set, eg. in Excel, NOT as a PDF.

If the decision is made to withhold some of this data using exemptions in the Data Protection Act, please inform me of that fact and cite the exemptions used.

If some parts of this request are easier to answer than others, I would ask that you release the available data as soon as possible.

If you need any clarification then please do not hesitate to contact me. Under Section 16 it is your duty to provide advice and assistance and so I would expect you to contact me if you find this request unmanageable in any way.

I would be grateful if you could confirm in writing that you have received this request, and I look forward to hearing from you within the 20-working day statutory time period.

Kind regards,
Helena Blackstone

Alistair P Sloan left an annotation ()

Some information has been redacted by the WhatDoTheyKnow team on the grounds that it is (or may) amount to personal data that we feel ought not to be publicly displayed. TfL will have received the request in its original form (i.e. including the information that has been redacted) by E-mail.

Alistair
WhatDoTheyKnow volunteer

FOI, Transport for London

Dear Ms Blackstone

 

Our ref:  FOI-1281-1415

 

Thank you for your email received on 3 November 2014 asking for
information about Oyster refunds.

 

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 provided to you by 2 December 2014.

 

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

 

 

Yours sincerely

 

 

Graham Hurt

FOI Case Officer

 

FOI Case Management Team

General Counsel

Transport for London

 

 

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References

Visible links
1. http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/about-tfl/

Dear FOI,

Today is the last day that I am supposed to receive a response to
my FOI. Could you please confirm that this will happen?

Yours sincerely,

Helena Blackstone

FOI, Transport for London

1 Attachment

Dear Ms Blackstone

 

Our ref:  FOI-1281-1415

 

Thank you for your email received on 3 November 2014 asking for
information about Oyster refunds.

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.

As I understand it, I would not have been able to receive such an email as
the above and would not have the opportunity to receive a refund if my
Oyster card had

been unregistered. Is this correct?

 

A refund is processed if identified as eligible for one, regardless of
whether or not the card is registered.  The only difference being that a
registered card means that a customer is notified of a refund.

How much money was retained due to unreclaimed refunds existing because of
operational issues in the years 2012, 2013 and the first ten months of
2014.

 

Figures for refunds which have not been claimed are as follows:

2012 =  £1,756,785.35

 

2013 =  £2,524,594.65

2014 (to 30^th September) =   £1,949,048.52. Please note that final
figures for October 2014 are not yet available.

The information in answer to question 2 broken down by station.

How much money was retained due to unreclaimed refunds existing because of
operational issues in journeys beginning or ending in Camden Town

Underground station, in the years 2012, 2013 and the first ten months of
2014.

The number of operational issues resulting in refunds due that occurred in
calendar years 2012, 2013 and the first 10 months of 2014.

 

The numbers for question 6 broken down by reason for the operational
issue.

The number of operational issues that occurred for journeys beginning or
ending in Camden Town Underground station in calendar years 2012, 2013 and
the first 10 months of 2014?

 

The numbers for question 8 broken down by reason for the operational
issue.

Unfortunately, to provide the information requested in questions 3, 4 and
6-9 above 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 £1,750 to provide a response to your
current request. This is because it is estimated that it would take 70
working hours to retrieve and compile the information you have requested.
We do not record refund data or operational issue by individual stations
and therefore to answer your request we would need to manually check each
record held. For example, if we were to look at the number of refund
instances because of an issue at Camden Town, we would have to research
every single incident that affected the Northern line to see if it was
relevant.

 

Unfortunately even if you were to refine your request, it would be likely
that would be unable to provide an answer because as advised, we do not
record refund information in the manner you require. We would therefore
always need to manually check all refunds issued to see if they were
relevant.

5) The possible reasons these operational issues resulting in refunds
occur.

 

Possible reasons that can cause operational disruptions which may result
in a refund being issued are station closures, major events restricting
access to and from a station and requiring a customer to use another
station, local power failures, train service suspensions or severe delays,
and customers being unable to validate (touch in or out) because of gate
equipment or validator faults.

If this is not the information you are looking for please do not hesitate
to contact me.

If you are not satisfied with this response please see the attached
information sheet for details of your right to appeal.

Yours sincerely

 

Graham Hurt

FOI Case Officer

FOI Case Management Team

General Counsel

Transport for London

 

 

show quoted sections

 

References

Visible links
1. http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/about-tfl/