20 things we learnt from TfL FoI requests in January 2026
1) Not all insulated pots are made of porcelain, some are Glass Reinforced Plastic. 2) When a "stand on both sides of the escalator" trial was attempted at Holborn station in 2016, the flow of customers increased by up to 30%. However when staff resources were withdrawn from the foot of the escalators, "customers reverted to the behavioural norm and queued to stand on the right with a minority walking on the left". 3) There are currently no plans to charge for the use of the Woolwich Ferry. 4) In the last financial year, the total revenue received for gambling advertising on bus shelters was £1,010,718 (up from £587,290 the previous year). 5) Twenty Bakerloo line trains per hour can be safely reversed at Queen’s Park. At peak times nine trains per hour continue northbound. 6) There is a business case for decreasing the frequency of route 310 to 1 bus per hour and a business case to withdraw the service. However these options are not being progressed at this stage due to expected stakeholder opposition. (multiple recent bus route analyses here) 7) The most used tram stops outside central Croydon are Wimbledon, Mitcham, Therapia Lane, Ampere Way and Beckenham Junction. The least used, by some distance, are Avenue Road and Coombe Lane. 8) If the Overground were to take over Great Northern suburban rail routes out of Moorgate, the existing rolling stock would be retained and yes, the lines would be added to the tube map. 9) Last year TfL received 18,363 applications for their graduate programme. Approximately 650 applicants were shortlisted and 172 job offers were made. 10) The LGBTQ+ pedestrian crossing lights at Trafalgar Square have been removed as part of the LED retrofit programme. LEDs are around five times more energy-efficient than standard lamps and have a significantly longer lifespan, helping to improve reliability and reduce maintenance. Unfortunately, as the LGBTQ+ signals were a bespoke design when originally installed, there is currently no equivalent LED version available that can be used as a direct replacement. (hey journalists, look, here's an actual news story for you)
11) A passenger on the Metropolitan line contacted TfL to complain about a Poem on the Underground called Goldfinch because it contained the lines ‘THIS WINTER’S DAY PRICKS LIKE CHAFF’ and ‘I’LL COCK MY HEAD’. They would have changed the offending words to something more family-friendly. 12) Superloop route SL4 (through the Silvertown Tunnel) is used by an average of 5300 passengers on Saturdays and 4500 on Sundays. 13) South Kenton station has been unstaffed since 9 January due to safety issues. A persistent ceiling leak has caused visible weakening of the structure. With continued rain the risk of the ceiling falling has increased. This has meant that it is unsafe for staff to be in the office. 14) The Elizabeth line entrance gate at Bond Street station facing Hanover Square had been closed as the mechanism for opening and closing the gates was faulty. Works to put the gates back into service were completed in the week ending 13 December and passengers no longer have to use the side gates. 15) There are no plans to run a Superloop service to Bluewater. 16) There are approximately 14,000 cameras in London Underground stations and 7,500 cameras onboard the trains. CCTV footage is stored for at least 14 days, with a number of stations holding recordings for at least 31 days. 17) The most popular stops on Bakerloop servce BL1 are Lewisham Clock Tower westbound and Waterloo Road eastbound. Overall, passenger totals are 7% higher eastbound than westbound. 18) A z1-9 annual Travelcard costs 38% more than it did ten years ago and 63% more than 15 years ago. 19) TfL lose no revenue due to the Freedom Pass because the settlement with London Councils comprises the costs of providing the scheme and the revenue forgone. The revenue forgone for 2024/25 was £260m. 20) The eleven tube stations with cross-platform interchanges between different lines are Acton Town, Baker Street, Barons Court, Euston, Finchley Road, Finsbury Park, Hammersmith, Mile End, Oxford Circus, Stockwell and Wembley Park.
Have you ever wondered how many pocket-size paper tube maps are printed? Well, it's currently 8 million a year although 10 years ago it was 30 million! Here's a graph.
TfL currently print an initial allocation of 4 million maps per year, printing more later if a top-up is required. The total cost of manufacturing 4 million copies is around £80,000. Updating the artwork generally only costs around £1000. Maps are packed in boxes of 3000. When a print run takes place two boxes are sent to all zone 1 stations and one box to all zone 2-9 stations. The initial shipment to stations totals 1,110,000 copies with the remainder held at the warehouse.
Also don't read too much into that very high bar at the start of the graph. 2016 was an unusual year with three separate tube map editions (January 2016, June 2016, December 2016). Also June 2016 was the time they mucked up the tram fare zone at Morden and had to do a complete reprint, binning the entire first run.
Someone asked "I would like to request the ridership figures for each TfL bus route in the 2024-2025 financial year, broken down by Oyster, Contactless, different Zip Card age groups, Orange Freedom Pass, Blue Freedom Pass, other ENCTS, etc.". A spreadsheet has been provided.
I can thus tell you that these are the most used bus routes by payment type.
18: most used by Oyster PAYG, 60+ Oyster and Bus Passes (and overall)
149: most used by contactless payment cards
158: most used by holders of Travelcards
5: most used by holders of 16+ Zip cards
279: most used by holders of child Zip cards
207: most used by holders of an elderly Freedom Pass
29: most used by holders of a disabled Freedom Pass
51% of bus passengers pay full fare (38% contactless, 13% Oyster).
12% of passengers use Freedom Passes (9% elderly, 3% disabled) and another 4½% use 60+ Oyster cards.
9% of passengers swipe a Bus Pass, 9% use a Zip card and 6% still use a Travelcard.
77% of passengers on school buses pay with a Zip card and 10% with a contactless card.
45% of passengers on nightbuses pay with a contactless card and only 1½% with a Zip card.
There's also a column in the spreadsheet headed 'Button Push', which I believe refers to passengers with non-electronic passes or boarding without paying. There were 129.5 million button pushes in this particular year, i.e. 7% of all passengers, although I believe this is a blanket estimate so don't read too much into how much lost revenue it represents.
