Review of the TfL WiFi pilot Our findings Contents About Transport for London (TfL) 4 Foreword Part of the Greater London Authority Elizabeth line, modernising Tube services family of organisations led by Mayor of and stations, transforming the road 6 Executive summary London Sadiq Khan, we are the integrated network and making it safer, especially transport authority responsible for for more vulnerable road users, such as 10 Purpose of the pilot delivering the Mayor’s strategy and pedestrians and cyclists. commitments on transport. 14 Customer research We work hard to make journeys easier As a core element in the Mayor’s overall through effective use of technology and 18 Keeping customers informed plan for London, our purpose is to keep data. We provide modern ways to pay London moving, working and growing, through Oyster and contactless payment 20 What data was collected? and to make life in our city better. We cards and provide information in a wide reinvest all of our income to run and range of formats to help people move 22 Protecting customers’ privacy and security improve London’s transport services and around London. 22 Assessing our approach to make it safer, modern and affordable for everyone. We play a central role Real-time travel information is provided 22 Encrypting data collected in delivering the Mayor’s strategy to directly by us and through third party 22 Data storage improve air quality and public health and organisations, which use the data we to make transport accessible to all. make openly and freely available to 24 How successful was the data collection? power apps and other services. Our operational responsibilities include 26 How data can help us improve our services London Underground, London Buses, We listen to, and act upon, feedback 26 Customer information Docklands Light Railway (DLR), London and complaints to constantly improve 38 Operations and safety Overground, TfL Rail, London Trams, our services and work with boroughs, London River Services, London Dial-a- communities, representative groups, 40 Transport planning Ride, Victoria Coach Station, Santander businesses and many other stakeholders 43 Prioritising investment Cycles and the Emirates Air Line. to shape transport provision in London. 45 Conclusion On the roads, we regulate taxis and the Improving and expanding transport in private hire trade, run the Congestion London is central to driving economic Charging scheme, manage the city’s growth, jobs and housing throughout the 580km red route network, operate all United Kingdom. Where possible, we are of the Capital’s 6,300 traffic signals and using our land to provide thousands of work to ensure a safe environment for all new, affordable homes. Our own supply road users. chain creates tens of thousands of jobs and apprenticeships across the country. We are delivering one of the world’s largest programmes of transport capital investment, which is building the Review of the TfL WiFi pilot 3 Foreword Technology is transforming our lives, from how we work and enjoy our leisure time to the way we travel. For TfL, the dramatic pace of change has presented exciting opportunities. Electric buses are improving air quality, depersonalised WiFi connection data while state-of-the art signalling can fill in the gaps, as it allows us to means Victoria line trains run every see how people travel beyond the 100 seconds. And smartcard ticketing gateline. It removes the need for costly, is offering customers a wide range of time-consuming surveys and means convenient ways to pay. we can provide detailed customer information for specific times of the The phenomenal rise in the number of day, on individual lines, platforms people using smartphones and mobile and even trains. The potential benefits devices, and the growing appetite for are enormous. information on the go, led us to provide free WiFi at more than 97 per cent of our Given the success of the pilot, we plan stations. We continue to invest in better to collect WiFi data connections across digital customer information and making our network. We will keep customers non-personal data freely and openly informed, respect their privacy and available to app developers. clearly communicate how to opt out. And there are still untapped In this modern, data-driven world, opportunities that, if explored, can the possibilities are endless. radically improve customers’ journeys. Which route or platform do they use? Our transport system generates huge Do they take the first train or wait for amounts of data. For instance, on a a less crowded one? Do people typical weekday, we collect 19 million choose the fastest route, or the most smartcard ticketing transactions that comfortable? How do customers move offer a valuable insight into the number around our most complex stations? of people using our network. But this Lauren Sager Weinstein doesn’t give us a complete picture – Ahead of and during the pilot, posters kept A four-week pilot in November and Chief Data Officer after they tap in, how do they travel? customers informed December last year revealed that Transport for London 4 Foreword Review of the TfL WiFi pilot 5 Executive summary Customers are at the heart of all that we do. Every journey matters to us and we work hard to make sure our transport network is safe, reliable and fit for the future. 97% More people than ever are using the of Tube Tube, with more trains running than stations have free WiFi at any time in its history. And we are continuing to transform the way we serve our customers. In addition to the substantial improvements under way on our trains and stations, we are looking to use technology to provide Customer information: could WiFi even better information to help people connection data help us provide better get around London. customer information for journey planning and avoiding congestion? Across the Tube network, 97 per cent of stations now have free WiFi installed, Operations and safety information: which helps people stay up to date could understanding customer while they travel. As a by-product movements in stations help us deploy of providing this service, our router our people to best meet customer network collects information about the needs, and manage disruptions and connections made to the WiFi system. events more effectively? This data could potentially be very useful for understanding travel patterns. Transport planning: by better understanding how our customers From 21 November to 19 December 2016, use the Tube network, could we plan we conducted a pilot to evaluate the timetables, and our station designs usefulness of WiFi connection data. and upgrades, more efficiently? It involved collecting depersonalised data from mobile devices that made Prioritising investment: by measuring connections to our WiFi network at customer footfall and movements 54 stations. We then tested whether through and around stations, could we this could be used to provide benefits assess the effectiveness of our poster in four areas: sites and retail units? WiFi data can help us understand customers’ travel patterns beyond the gateline 6 Executive summary Review of the TfL WiFi pilot 7 Historically, we have used a combination We relied on guidance from the of data sources to understand customer More than Information Commissioner’s Office movements between and within (ICO), the UK’s independent authority stations. This has included, since 2005, set up to uphold information rights. using depersonalised ticketing data 500 million to look at journey patterns. However, Ahead of the launch of the pilot we depersonalised WiFi connection requests while this data is very useful for VictoriVictoriaa carried out a press and awareness understanding gate-to-gate patterns, Northbound TrainsTrains arriving 90%90% fulfulll campaign. We also pledged to share the it does not tell us which routes Southbound TrainsTrains arriving 75%75% fulfulll results and to communicate our future customers take within stations. • The aggregated data can show plans for WiFi connection data. which sections of our network are Jubilee Because of this, we have supplemented crowded, at what times, and how Jubilee The pilot was successfully delivered, Northbound Trains arriving 90% full our ticketing data with manual customer this changes in response to events Northbound Trains arriving 50% full using in-house expertise, for less than Southbound Trains arriving 75% full surveys. This is time intensive, expensive and network alterations Southbound Trains arriving 25% full £100,000. and limited in detail and reliability. WiFi connection data, on the other • We can use this data to power analytical In view of the clear benefits to us and hand, could provide a better and more tools and services that can improve the our customers, we are now planning to cost-efficient solution. This is what we way we run and plan our network, and formally roll out network-wide WiFi data wanted to test in our pilot. can provide our customers with much collection, so we can better understand more detailed information travel patterns, provide enhanced Over four weeks we collected more than information for our customers, and 500 million depersonalised connection Further details and analysis on all these improve our planning and operations. requests, and our technical process ran points are outlined throughout this report. without error. Having collected the data, We will continue to inform our we needed to create new analytic tools Openness and transparency is customers about any WiFi connection and algorithms that could improve our fundamental to the way we operate. collection, the purpose behind it, and understanding of travel patterns. From the first time we looked at how we will use the data. And we will whether we could use WiFi connection make sure people know how to opt out. From our data analysis, we have been data to understand travel patterns WiFi connection data could help us improve customer information for journey able to conclude that: on our network, we recognised planning and avoiding congestion the importance of making sure our • WiFi data can help us understand customers clearly understood what we the paths customers take in stations, were proposing and why.