The Rail Vehicle Accessibility (South West Trains Class 458 Vehicles) Exemption Order 2001

1.  This Order may be cited as the Rail Vehicle Accessibility (South West Trains Class 458 Vehicles) Exemption Order 2001 and shall come into force on 1st April 2001.

2.  Any reference in this Order to a numbered regulation is a reference to a regulation bearing that number in the Rail Vehicle Accessibility Regulations 1998(1).

3.  This order applies to the rail vehicles which are numbered 67601 to 67630, 74001 to 74030, 74101 to 74130 and 67701 to 67730 and which form the electrical multiple-units numbered 458001 to 458030 of the class known as “Class 458” (“the exempted vehicles”) as manufactured by ALSTOM Transport Limited for use by South West Trains Limited.

4.—(1) Subject to articles 5 to 7 below, the exempted vehicles are hereby authorised to be used for carriage even though they do not conform with those provisions of the Rail Vehicle Accessibility Regulations 1998 referred to in paragraph (2) below.

(2) The provisions with which the exempted vehicles are not required to conform are—

• regulation 4(2);

• regulation 5(1)(a), (b) and (c), but subject to the condition in article 5(1) below;

• regulation 6(1)(b) and (d);

• regulation 11(1)(a);

• regulation 13(7), but only in so far as it relates to the height of letters and numbers on visual systems which are not on the front of an exempted vehicle; and

• regulation 20(1)(d), (e) and (f), but subject to the condition in article 5(2) below.

5.—(1) The exemption given by article 4(2) above in relation to regulation 5(1)(b) shall only apply while—

(a) the maximum amount of force required to operate a door control does not exceed 40 newtons; and

(b) the operator provides in that vehicle or, where an exempted vehicle forms part of a train, in that train a person, other than the driver of that vehicle or train, who is reasonably available to assist a disabled person.

(2) The exemption given by article 4(2) above in relation to regulation 20(1)(f) is given on the condition that, until a handrail compliant with regulation 20(1)(f) is installed, no other hinged handrail is installed to the side of the toilet in the nearest toilet cubicle to a wheelchair space.

6.—(1) The exemption given in respect of regulations 4(2) and 20(1)(f) shall cease at the end of 30th September 2001.

(2) The exemption given in respect of regulations 5(1)(a), 6(1)(d), 11(1)(a) and 20(1)(d) and (e) shall cease at the end of 31st December 2010.

(3) The exemption given in respect of regulation 5(1)(b) shall cease at the end of 31st July 2002.

(4) The exemption given in respect of regulation 5(1)(c) shall cease—

(a) at the end of 31st December 2010; or

(b) in respect of an exempted vehicle in which all the door control devices for the doors in all the doorways inside, and in both ends of, the exempted vehicle and the control systems for those doorways are replaced before that date, when such replacement is completed.

(5) The exemption given in respect of regulation 6(1)(b) shall cease—

(a) at the end of 30th September 2004; or

(b) in respect of an exempted vehicle in which the band of colour across the front of a top tread at an external doorway is renewed before that date, when such renewal is completed.

(6) The exemption given in respect of regulation 13(7) shall cease—

(a) at the end of 30th September 2004; or

(b) in respect of an exempted vehicle in which the public addresses system for visual announcements is replaced by another system for such announcements before that date, when such replacement is completed.

7.  The authorisation shall cease forthwith in respect of an exempted vehicle which is operated by a person other than South West Trains Limited unless the Secretary of State has been given written notice in advance specifying the name and address of that other person.

8.  The Orders specified in the Schedule to this Order are hereby revoked.

Signed by authority of the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions

Keith Hill

Parliamentary Under Secretary of State,

Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions

8th March 2001