30 things we learnt from TfL FoI requests in July 2026
1) In Spring 2026 3,294 users of the Blackwall Tunnel appealed against a £180 fine on the basis that they were unaware of the tunnel charging scheme. All were rejected. 2) Hidden London have scheduled ten BSL tours since a first trial in 2024. The best-selling was at Holborn in July 2025 (6 tickets sold), whereas three tours (Clapham South, Baker Street and Baker Street) have been cancelled due to zero sales. 3) All directly-employed frontline operational staff attend a mandatory one-day in-person Conflict Management Training course. 4) During the last financial year the three most common contraventions on TfL red routes were i) stopping where prohibited (370,524), ii) being in a Bus Lane (163,912) and iii) entering and stopping in a box junction when prohibited (104,117). 5) Confirmed - there are no longer any plans to implement platform edge doors on the Piccadilly line.
6) 69,001 Penalty Fare Notices were issued during the last financial year - 26% on buses, 20% on the Elizabeth line, 18% on the Overground, 17% on the Underground, 10% on the DLR and 9% on trams. 7) TfL Visitor Information Centres are no longer capable of printing paper (magnetic) tickets. 8) From 5 July to 31 October, as part of a trial, the maximum fare for failing to touch in/out on some National Rail routes outside London has been raised to £30.50. This is "to encourage customers to complete their journeys correctly". Refunds can only be claimed by telephone. [they kept that quiet] 9) The Big Red Book, which offers 216 pages of guidance to bus drivers on how best to serve their passengers, is now permanently linked on the TfL website at tfl.gov.uk/big-red-book.pdf 10) On all bus routes speed cushions should be a maximum of 1700mm wide (including side slopes).
11) Over the last year, Tube replacement bus services operated for the equivalent of 340 days with a total Peak Vehicle Requirement of 3,994. 12) 30 bus stops had CCTV fitted to the shelter as part of a 2024 trial to improve passenger safety. Croydon has four such stops, sixteen boroughs have none. 13) The rerouting of route 224 is planned to take place on 28 November 2026. The scheme has been delayed so that the London Borough of Ealing can carry out resurfacing work during the school summer holiday. 14) On Sundays (and Bank holidays), those travelling from Shoeburyness to Bletchley are permitted 375 minutes before a Maximum Fare penalty kicks in, the widest leeway of any contactless journey. 15) On an average weekday, the London Underground's consumption of electric power peaks around 8.30am with a subsidiary peak around 5.30pm. Consumption drops to 20% of the maximum around 3am. At the weekend the peak comes at 5.30pm, but is near-peak from noon to 7pm.
16) The reason why southbound trains at Croxley station never appear on the TfL Go app is because live arrivals on Trackernet are not shown until the train has left Watford. This is expected to be rectified in May 2027 when the 4LM project reaches the Watford branch. 17) Since 2019 temperatures over 35°C have been recorded on the platforms at four zone 1 stations - Covent Garden, Marble Arch, Paddington and Tottenham Court Road. The maximum was 35.63°C on the Central line at Tottenham Court Road in July 2019. 18) Last year black cab drivers handed in £6066.72 cash as lost property, of which only £40 went unclaimed. 19) There are 28 different lift diagrams at Tottenham Court Road station. Whitechapel has 27, Liverpool Street 23, Farringdon 22, Bond Street 20, Paddington 17 and Canary Wharf just 12. 20) Between 1 June 2024 to 31 May 2026 there were no recorded instances of London buses or other TfL vehicles colliding with horses.
21) TfL have withdrawn their estimate that there are half a million mice living across the London Underground network. This is because "given the passage of time and having carried out all reasonable searches, we cannot find any record of where the figure originally came from or on what methodology it was based." 22) TfL still print an initial allocation of 4 million paper tube maps per year at a cost of around £80,000. The artist's fee for the cover comes from Art on the Underground’s allocated budget and does not exceed £5,575. 23) When the 2024 tube stock on the Piccadilly line finally enters passenger service it will have new announcements. 24) Over the last two years rail grinding has taken place on 2977m of Victoria line track between Highbury & Islington and Finsbury Park. No grinding is planned here for the remainder of the year. 25) TfL can't tell you when your great grandad passed out as a taxi driver, sorry, because they only started regulating the service in 2000.
26) Route 186 has been removed from Harrow Bus Station to address overcrowding (too many vehicles at the bus station) and to provide a faster more direct journey for through passengers. 27) The glass lighting panels on the Elizabeth line escalators at Whitechapel station are deep cleaned weekly. If excessive dust is present between the cleans, additional cleans are implemented. [it's clearly not often enough] 28) In the last financial year the revenue generated from ULEZ charges and enforcement activity was £162m. The surplus remaining after removing operating costs and capital financing charges was £118m. 29) TfL measure tube fleet reliability via a metric called Mean Distance Between Failures (MDBF). This is calculated by dividing the number of actual kilometres operated by the number of incidents with a delay of 2 minutes or more. Last year the most reliable rolling stock was on the Circle, H&C and District lines which went an average of 18500km between failures, followed by the Victoria line with 17500km. Next came the Metropolitan (16500km), Northern (14000km), Piccadilly (12500km) and Jubilee (10000km). Rolling stock was least reliable on the Waterloo & City (4000km), Central (4500km) and Bakerloo (7500km). [the Central line is shockingly unreliable] 30) TfL have 14 employees whose primary address is in Scotland. Two of these started work in 2026.
