FOI - London Overground rebranding [Mar 2024]

Your request 

Please may I request under FOIA

1. all internal reports prepared in relation to the renaming of the London Overground lines, 
2. any minutes of meetings in relation to the renaming of the London Overground lines attended by any of: the Mayor, political appointees of and advisers to the Mayor, any London Assembly members or their political appointees/ advisers, or any GLA employee earning more than £75,000 p.a.
3. any emails or text messages sent or received about the renaming of the London Overground lines by the individuals listed in (2);
4. the total cost and breakdown thereof of implementing the name changes to the London Overground;
5. all consultation responses received in relation to the renaming of the London Overground; and
6. any document or email about the London Overground name changes in which the word ‘woke’ appears.

Our response 

1. The GLA has not ‘prepared’ any ‘internal reports’ in relation to the renaming of the London Overground lines. Transport for London (TfL) is the Mayor's transport authority and is responsible for implementing the Mayor's Transport Strategy, and for the day-to-day operational running of transport services. You may wish to send a further request to TfL at [email protected].

TfL has produced the following webpages which provide information in relation the renaming of the London Overground lines: London Overground line naming - Transport for London (tfl.gov.uk)

2. Please find attached at the end of this letter [See related documents]
3. Unfortunately, we have estimated that the cost of complying with part 3 of your request would exceed the “appropriate limit” specified in the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulation 2004 SI 2004 No 3244. These are known as the ‘Fees Regulations’ for brevity.

Section 12 of the Act provides that a public authority is not obliged to comply with a request if the cost of determining whether we hold the information, locating and retrieving it and extracting it from other information would exceed the appropriate limit. The aforementioned Fees Regulations stipulate that this limit is £450; calculated at £25 per hour for every hour spent on the activities described and equates to 18 hours of work.

An initial search of one email account for emails on the subject of “London Overground” brings out over 17,000. Refining the search to “London overground naming” brings out 1008; “London Overground renaming” brings out 762. Not all emails will be within the scope of your request, but it is the time taken to locate and extract out the information that is relevant to your request that is considered.

There are approximately 60 – 100 individuals at the GLA whom your request would need to be coordinated with across the Assembly & Secretariat, Mayor’s Office and relevant GLA teams. There is no mechanism at our disposal to perform an automated search for relevant information. We have estimated that it would take each individual at least several hours’ of work to comply with your request as a significant amount of time would be needed to retrieve and extract the specific information you have requested from our records, including separating it from other information which is not directly related to your request.

We have therefore refused this request under the cost limit provisions of section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act and this letter therefore constitutes a refusal notice under section 17(1) of the Act.

In order to bring your request within the cost threshold, you may wish to limit your request to specific named individuals in the GLA or members of staff in a particular team at the GLA; limited to email correspondence; and narrow down the scope of your request by providing more context in what specific information you want in relation to the topic of London Overground naming. Please note any narrowed request will be treated as a new request for information for consideration under the Act.

4. The London Overground network has grown considerably over recent years. Today the network covers 113 stations across six routes. Giving each of the six routes their own line name and colour will make travel on London Overground easier and simpler for our customers.

The changes will make it easier to understand when and where to change lines, and any service updates that might affect your journey. London Overground services will not be impacted by these changes, and customers will still be able to make the same journeys.

The costs for the project are being met by the GLA and are fully accounted for in TfL’s budget. The estimated cost is £6.3m. This includes re-designing and re-displaying new maps across the 113 Overground stations in London, as well as updated printed and online maps, digital screens, and re-recording PA announcements. If you are seeking further breakdown of this information, TfL is the Mayor's transport authority and is responsible for implementing the Mayor's Transport Strategy, and for the day-to-day operational running of transport services including management of the London Overground naming project. You may wish to send a further request to TfL at [email protected].

5. The GLA does not hold this information. Information on how the names were chosen can be found at: Choosing the new London Overground names - Transport for London (tfl.gov.uk)