08 May Infographic workbook – Hadrian Fletcher
Workbook
When we first began looking into datasets and deciding which ones to use for our infographic I immediately went to TFL’s (Transport for London) website as I already have a pre-existing interest in transport, and in particular the London underground network.
As soon as I began looking for data on the TFL website I noticed how easy it was to navigate and how easy the datasets where to find and to understand. And quite simply the quantity of data that was available.
It was while looking at a document on passenger numbers I noticed the cable car (which is run by TFL despite heavy Emirates airline endorsement and promotion) had very low passenger numbers compared to other TFL services, the downloadable excel spreadsheet on passenger numbers (https://data.london.gov.uk/dataset/public-transport-journeys-type-transport) shows the number of journeys in a four week period on each type of transport, all of these display the figures in millions as shown by a M on the table. But while every other form of transport has whole numbers the emirates airline shows much smaller figures.
From here I went on to find the numbers of passengers on the cable car itself, The most recent figures were displayed on the webpage while historical data dating back to the opening of the cable car is available on downloadable PDF documents on the same webpage.
https://tfl.gov.uk/corporate/publications-and-reports/emirates-air-line-performance-data
I then wanted to find some more specific data about the funding and income of the cable car, after a quick online search I found a webpage where TFL respond to FOI (freedom of information) requests, one particular FOI request was asking about the income the cable car receives through ticket revenue and sponsorship revenue.
Again I found this very easy to download and understand, although it did take some time as the amount of sponsorship money from Emirates Airlines was not disclosed until the 92nd page of the document.
http://content.tfl.gov.uk/emirates-airline-contract.pdf see page 92
I already had an idea of the fares of different TFL services and was pretty confident that the cables cars base or cheapest fare was the most expensive of any form of TFL transport, I was able to confirm this very easily by using the TFL website.
Finally, I wanted to get a comment from TFL so very easily found a phone number to ring whereupon I was directed to an email address of the press officer for the rail division of TFL (the cable car comes under rail) not only was this press officer able to direct me to an information pack on the cable car he also replied with a comment from a TFL spokesperson.
I then set about writing the article and designing the infographic deciding from the information what to include and what not to include, In the article I decided to include the information on passenger numbers, the income from sponsorship and fares and the TFL comment, I chose not to include the fact that it’s the most expensive base fare in the article as I felt this was such a small piece of information. It would be hard to place it in.
In the infographic I decided to include the fact that it’s the most expensive base fare, and the passenger numbers. I chose not to include the figures on sponsorship income as I only used this in the article to back up the fact that the cable car is a viable business.
http://content.tfl.gov.uk/emirates-air-line-passengers-2012.pdf
http://content.tfl.gov.uk/emirates-air-line-passengers-2013.pdf
http://content.tfl.gov.uk/emirates-air-line-passengers-2014.pdf
http://content.tfl.gov.uk/emirates-air-line-passengers-2015.pdf
http://content.tfl.gov.uk/emirates-airline-passengers-2016.pdf
https://tfl.gov.uk/corporate/publications-and-reports/emirates-air-line-performance-data
http://content.tfl.gov.uk/emirates-airline-contract.pdf see page 92
http://content.tfl.gov.uk/qpr-q3.pdf see page 17
https://data.london.gov.uk/dataset/public-transport-journeys-type-transport
