20 things we learnt from TfL FoI requests in May 2026
1) The Mayor of London has no personal exemption from the Congestion Charge. 2) When the new Museum of London opens, TfL expects to rename the two adjacent bus stops currently called 'Snow Hill'. 3) In March 2026 TfL earned £88,361 from 10,754 passengers touching in and out at the same station (a "same station exit"). Meanwhile 33,0092 passengers were not charged (whatever that number is supposed to be). 4) TfL Emergency Response Units no longer use the callsigns Charlie 1-1 through to Charlie 5-6 (not used since 2020), Bravo 1-1 through to Bravo 5-6 (not used since 2024) and Echo Mama 1 (not used since 2024). 5) TfL earns more from the Congestion Charge than from ULEZ.
6) There are over 2300 Passenger Help Points at TfL stations. Only four of these aren't working - three on the tube and one at a tramstop. Nobody has complained about this since the start of the year. 7) London's busiest bus stop is Brixton Station (Stop P) with 4,117,594 boarders last year. The FoI team now assert "there is no one single ‘least busy’ bus stop" (which is more realistic than the bolx they published about Dysart Avenue in 2024). 8) Last year only 35 penalty fares were issued to persons aged 16-18 years for tram journeys made on weekdays between 07:30 and 09:00. 9) A bollard on the North Circular at the junction of Brentfield Road and Drury Way has been reported damaged and replaced 24 times since 10 October 2023. 10) The tube station with the most TfL ticket machines is King's Cross St Pancras with 43. The only tube stations with just one ticket machine are Harlesden and Roding Valley.
11) In the last financial year TfL earned £159m from advertising across their estate, up from £131m in 2024/25. 12) In 2024/25 the three tube stations earning the least revenue from advertising were Colindale (£122), Burnt Oak (£2195) and Croxley (£2233). Oxford Circus station earned the most (£13,118,587). 13) TfL have started to refuse FoI requests for the audio files for iBus announcements "because of continued and repeated misuse and abuse of access rights". 14) As of 7 May 2026, 2,635 bus countdown signs are operational and 264 are either not working or not fully functional (LED faults 2, transmission failure 141, offline pending shelter work 96, re-install pending shelter works 24, incorrect routes displaying 1). 15) TfL have no current plans to install travelators or moving walkways on Oxford Street. (subtext: obviously, you muppet)
16) A majority of penalty fares go unpaid (last year 55%). 17) Ten years ago the Rotherhithe Tunnel was used by an average of 200 cyclists and 9 pedestrians each weekday. 18) The London Rail and Tube Services map is not intended to be a comprehensive map of every station outside Greater London where contactless payment is accepted, thus there are no plans to add any additional stations to the map. 19) So far this year 52 pigeons have been culled at Upminster depot (in 2nd place Ruislip depot with 39, in 3rd place Neasden depot with 17). 20) Last year's lost property on TfL services included 26 sex toys. Of these only six were returned to their owner.
