20 things we learnt from TfL FoI requests in November 2025
1) TfL have not yet completed all the work to rename the London Overground lines, but should have finished by March. 2) As of September 2025, 64% of London's bus fleet is fitted with Intelligent Speed Assistance. 3) There is a speed restriction on the Central line in both directions between Stratford and Leyton. The eastbound speed restriction is as a result of in-train noise and the westbound restriction is as a result of a track defect. 4) Fare evasion rates on the Underground are estimated to be 4.8%, down from 4.9% in 2023/4 and 6.7% in 2022/3. 5) TfL stopped producing Oyster wallets more than 5 years ago in order to save money and reduce usage of plastic. 6) All London buses are fitting with a heating system. The temperature of the passenger saloon area is controlled fully automatically with setpoints based upon ambient air temperatures (e.g. when it's below 5°C outside it should be 13°C inside). 7) Mobile phone coverage will be introduced on the underground section of the Windrush line by December 2026. 8) There were 128,002 applications for the 60+ Oyster card last year. There had already been 126,216 by the end of September this year. 9) The longest night bus route is the N199 with a maximum length of 21.88 miles from Trafalgar Square to St Mary Cray Station (43.47 miles return journey distance). The N89 is second (21.3 miles) and the N9 is third (20.9 miles). 10) The new Piccadilly line stock presents unique engineering challenges because four of the carriages have no wheels ["24TS is different to all other LU/TfL Rolling Stock due to the ‘floating’ bridge cars (no wheels / bogies) supported by adjacent conventional cars"]. This means that the envelope swept by the train as it passes through tunnels, along gradients and round bends can be unpredictable ["Due to the complex nature of the bridge car in changeable geometry/cant, current practices are unable to assess steps & gaps en-masse"]. 10 platforms currently have "non-compliant clearance", including Piccadilly Circus p4, South Kensington p3 and Ickenham p1. n.b. If you're an engineer, a journalist or an inquisitive soul with a mechanical bent you might like to dig further into "the presentation slides used in a talk given to the Permanent Way Institution on the evening of 4 June 2025" because an astonishing amount of techy stuff needs assurance before the new trains can enter public service.
11) The provisional date to publish the next tube map is 29 June 2026. 12) In August 1,136,358 vehicles paid £15,979,364 to travel in the Congestion Zone, while 1,711,305 vehicles paid £4,937,880 to drive through the Blackwall or Silvertown tunnels. 13) Over the last recorded 30 day period, there were 19 days when the Woolwich Ferry operated with only one vessel at some point during the day. 14) English National Concessionary Passes are not recognised by TfL bus readers because they are encoded differently to Oyster cards and contactless cards and devices, so should be shown to the driver when boarding a bus. 15a) The SL12 will terminate at Rainham Ferry Lane because it's the easiest place to locate a bus stand (and closes a network hole). 15b) Two route options for the SL13 were considered. Ealing to Hendon was chosen over Wembley to Wood Green because demand would be stronger to the west of Brent Cross. 15c) The SL14 will terminate at Chingford Hatch because it's the easiest place to locate a bus stand (and no parallel rail connections exist). 15d) Running the SL15 to Woolwich would have had strong demand but the route would have been too long to run reliably so Eltham will be the eastern terminus instead. 15e) The SL13 will be introduced on 1st August 2026. The SL14 will be introduced no earlier than 28th February 2026. The SL15 will be introduced no earlier than 1st February 2027. 16) If you continue to submit too many FoI requests, TfL will refuse to tell you how thick the padding on bus seats should be and why there are no buses on Christmas Day.
