TfL Recordings
Samuel Faria 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.
Dear Transport for London,
I would like to request a copy of available iBus, London Underground, London Overground and Docklands Light Railway announcements that you are permitted to release.
Thank you for your time and effort.
Yours faithfully,
Samuel Faria
Dear Transport for London,
To clarify, that includes any station announcements if at all possible.
Yours faithfully,
Samuel Faria
Dear Samuel Faria
Our ref: FOI-0642-1920/GH
Thank you for your request received by Transport for London (TfL) on 1
June 2019 asking for announcement recordings.
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 28 June 2019. The announcements will be
sent to you on a CD, and therefore we need a postal address to send these
to. Please can you provide this by emailing us direct at FOI @ tfl.gov.uk
(no spaces).
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
Graham Hurt
FOI Case Officer
FOI Case Management Team
General Counsel
Transport for London
References
Visible links
1. http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/transpar...
2. http://www.tfl.gov.uk/
3. http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/about-tfl/
Dear Samuel Faria
Our ref: FOI-0642-1920/GH
Thank you for your request received by Transport for London (TfL) on 1
June 2019 asking for announcement recordings.
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 some of the information you require.
CDs containing iBus, London Underground, London Overground and Docklands
Light Railway announcements has been sent to you in the post.
It should be noted that the iBus announcements are recorded as fragments.
As a result, some announcements would not feature in full as the full
announcement would just be made up of two or more fragments that have
already been recorded.
Announcements used on the services that London Overground took over from
Abellio Greater Anglia on 31 May 2015 are not held as audio files. They
are held on a server and we access them through existing server and
rolling stock. I can confirm that we have no current plans to create any
new recordings.
On train announcements for the Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly lines have
also been provided. The Northern line audio files contain historical as
well as current announcements. You will note the Piccadilly line
announcements are supplied as PCC files which may need specialist software
to play them. This format is the only version we currently have available.
Please also note that while the Jubilee and Piccadilly announcements are
recorded as full statements specifically for each station, Northern line
announcements are recorded as segmented phrases joined into full sentences
by the train management system (TMS).
Access to this material will be provided to you under the Freedom of
Information Act 2000, you are not granted any rights to any of the
intellectual property that exists in it or granted any permission to make
secondary uses of it.
TfL owns all intellectual property (including, without limitation,
copyright) in the material supplied and will defend such rights.
If you wish to make any secondary use of the material provided, you must
first obtain the consent of TfL (which may be withheld) and, if consent is
granted, a fee may be charged, in accordance with the terms of the Reuse
of Public Sector Information Regulations 2005.
With regards to the London Underground station announcements, and the on
train announcements for other lines, we are not obliged to supply these
audio files as the information is subject to a statutory exemption to the
right of access to information under section 43(2).
In this instance section 43(2) has been applied as disclosure of the
information requested would be likely to prejudice the commercial
interests of TfL and/or the company used to provide the recordings. The
recordings in question were provided to London Underground under a signed
contracts which contained explicit conditions concerning disclosure and
distribution.
These contracts specify that the recordings are solely to be used for the
purpose for which they were created and for broadcast on the London
Underground network only. If TfL were to disclose these recordings in
response to an FOI request, it would constitute an actionable breach of
contract and would be likely to result in a valid legal claim against
London Underground or the license to use the recordings being withdrawn,
which would impose additional, unnecessary, costs. TfL wishes to protect
its commercial interests and ability to participate in future commercial
activity. The disclosure of this information would be to the detriment of
present and future business activities for both parties.
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 within public
authorities and the degree of public interest concerning London transport
announcements in light of the recent disclosure of iBus announcements.
However, in this instance this is outweighed by the damage that would be
done to TfL’s ability to use these recordings and any future contractual
negotiations that may take place regarding the London Underground
announcements.
We do not hold the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) audio announcements for
trains and stations. The on train announcements for DLR are not held in
any central repository and are not ‘recorded ‘ as such. These are done
digitally as needed by typing them into a system, combining previously
typed announcements where necessary. It is therefore not possible to
provide an audio recording, as requested. The station announcements are
held on a central system but not in a form that allows them to be
distributed.
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
Graham Hurt
FOI Case Officer
FOI Case Management Team
General Counsel
Transport for London
References
Visible links
1. http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/about-tfl/
Dear Transport for London,
Thank you ever so much for your reply and subsequent dispatch of the discs. I do however believe that there has been an error with the Piccadilly Line PCC files, there is only one called "copy file.pcc". I would appreciate it if you could send another disc containing all of the PCC files, and the announcements for the TfL Rail Class 345s if possible.
Thank you very much.
Yours sincerely,
Samuel Faria
Dear Samuel Faria
Our ref: FOI-0793-1920/GH
Thank you for your request received by Transport for London (TfL) on 15
June 2019 concerning announcement recordings.
Your request will be processed in accordance with the requirements of the
Freedom of Information Act and our information access policy.
The Piccadilly Line announcements have been provided to you in the only
format we hold. We are therefore unable to provide them to you in another
format.
Your request for TfL Rail announcements will be treated as a new request
and a response will be sent to you by 15 July 2019.
We will publish anonymised versions of requests and responses on the
[1]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
Graham Hurt
FOI Case Officer
FOI Case Management Team
General Counsel
Transport for London
References
Visible links
1. http://www.tfl.gov.uk/
2. http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/about-tfl/
Dear Transport for London,
Just so that I completely understand, can you confirm that the extent of the Piccadilly Line announcement files is a singular file called ‘copy file.pcc’?
Yours sincerely,
Samuel Faria
Yes that is correct. Specialist software is required to open this file and play these announcements.
Dear Samuel Faria
Our ref: FOI-0793-1920/GH
Thank you for your request received by Transport for London (TfL) on 15
June 2019 concerning announcement recordings.
As previously advised, the Piccadilly Line announcements have been
provided to you in the only format we hold. We are therefore unable to
provide them to you in another format.
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 some of the information you require.
CDs containing TfL Rail announcements has been sent to you in the post.
Access to this material will be provided to you under the Freedom of
Information Act 2000, you are not granted any rights to any of the
intellectual property that exists in it or granted any permission to make
secondary uses of it.
TfL owns all intellectual property (including, without limitation,
copyright) in the material supplied and will defend such rights.
If you wish to make any secondary use of the material provided, you must
first obtain the consent of TfL (which may be withheld) and, if consent is
granted, a fee may be charged, in accordance with the terms of the Reuse
of Public Sector Information Regulations 2005.
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
Graham Hurt
FOI Case Officer
FOI Case Management Team
General Counsel
Transport for London
References
Visible links
1. http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/about-tfl/
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