The Carriage of Dangerous Goods by Rail Regulations 1994

Restrictions on the carriage of explosives

19.—(1) No person shall cause or permit to be carried unclassified explosives.

(2) No train operator shall cause or permit to be carried any explosives within a Compatibility Group whose Compatibility Group letter is K.

(3) No person shall cause or permit to be carried in any freight container or wagon explosives with a net mass exceeding 20 tonnes unless such explosives are within a Division whose Division number is 1.4.

(4) No person shall carry explosives in a train which carries passengers except in accordance with the conditions specified in paragraph (5).

(5) The conditions referred to in paragraph (4) are—

(a) the only explosives carried by the person concerned—

(i) are gunpowder or smokeless powder or any mixture thereof, or

(ii) are within a Compatibility Group whose Compatibility Group letter is S;

(b) the net mass of explosives carried by the person concerned does not exceed 2 kilograms;

(c) subject to paragraph (6), the explosives are kept with the person concerned and are kept property packed;

(d) all reasonable precautions are taken by the person concerned to prevent accidents arising from the explosives being carried; and

(e) subject to paragraph (6), the person concerned has obtained the approval of the train operator.

(6) Nothing in sub-paragraphs (c) and (e) of paragraph (5) shall apply to the carriage of railway fog signals.

(7) For the purposes of this regulation, where explosives are being carried by a passenger the members of the crew of the train on which they are being carried shall not be treated as carrying them as well.

(8) No person shall cause or permit to be carried any explosives in an open freight container or wagon, unless by reason of their packaged weight or dimension, it is not possible to carry the explosives concerned in a covered freight container or wagon.

(9) Any person who causes or permits to be carried any explosives in an open freight container or wagon in accordance with paragraph (8) shall ensure that such explosives are completely covered by sheeting and that the sheeting is securely fixed to the open freight container or wagon concerned except where it would not be reasonably practicable to cover the explosives with such sheeting and it would not be necessary for their protection.

(10) Any person engaged in the carriage of explosives shall take all reasonable steps to prevent unauthorised access to or theft of those explosives.

(11) The consignor of any explosives for carriage in a covered freight container or wagon and the operator of that freight container or wagon shall ensure that it is sealed to prevent unauthorised access.

(12) The train operator shall ensure that the security of any freight container or wagon carrying explosives is maintained whenever the train is stationary.

(13) The train operator and the consignee of explosives shall ensure—

(a) that the carriage of the explosives is completed within a reasonable length of time having regard to the distance involved; and

(b) that the explosives are removed from the railway facility to which they have been carried as soon as is practicable after their arrival there.

(14) Subject to paragraph (15), no consignor, train operator or operator of a freight container or wagon shall cause or permit to be carried explosives within different Compatibility Groups (other than those within a Division whose Division number is 1.4) in the same freight container or wagon unless effective measures are taken to ensure that the carriage of such a mixed load is no more dangerous than the carriage of the same quantity of explosives within any one of the Compatibility Groups in the load would be.

(15) Nothing in paragraph (14) shall apply to the carriage of explosives within different Compatibility Groups mixed in accordance with the Schedule to these Regulations.

(16) In this regulation—

• “unclassified” shall be construed by reference to the definition of “classified” in regulation 2(1) of the Road Traffic (Carriage of Explosives) Regulations 1989;

• “net mass” has the same meaning as in regulation 2(1) of the 1991 Regulations;

• “railway fog signal” means a railway track signals explosive within a Division whose Division number is 1.4, within a Compatibility Group whose Compatibility Group Letter is S and with UN number 0193.