The Rail Vehicle Accessibility (North Western Trains Class 175/0 and Class 175/1 Vehicles) Exemption Order 2001

Statutory Instruments

2001 No. 3434

DISABLED PERSONS

TRANSPORT

The Rail Vehicle Accessibility (North Western Trains Class 175/0 and Class 175/1 Vehicles) Exemption Order 2001

Made

14th October 2001

Laid before Parliament

19th October 2001

Coming into force

9th November 2001

The Secretary of State in exercise of the powers conferred upon him by section 47(1) of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995(1) and of all other powers enabling him in that behalf, having consulted the Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee and such other persons as he considered appropriate in accordance with section 47(3) of that Act, hereby makes the following Order:

Citation and commencement

1.  This Order may be cited as the Rail Vehicle Accessibility (North Western Trains Class 175/0 and Class 175/1 Vehicles) Exemption Order 2001 and shall come in to force on 9th November 2001.

Interpretation

2.—(1) 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(2) and expressions used in those Regulations shall have the same meaning in this Order as they have in those Regulations.

(2) Any reference to a diagram is a reference to a diagram bearing that number in the Schedule to the Rail Vehicle Accessibility Regulations 1998.

Application

3.  This order applies to the rail vehicles which are numbered 50701 to 50711 and 79701 to 79711 and which form the diesel multiple-units numbered 175001 to 175011 of the class known as “Class 175/0” and to the rail vehicles which are numbered 50751 to 50766, 56751 to 56766 and 79751 to 79766 and which form the diesel multiple-units numbered 175101 to 175116 of the class known as “Class 175/1” (“the exempted vehicles”) as manufactured by ALSTOM Transport Limited for use by North Western Trains Company Limited.

Exemption

4.—(1) Subject to articles 5, 6 and 7 below, the exempted vehicles are hereby authorised to be used for carriage although they do not conform with the provision of the Rail Vehicle Accessibility Regulations 1998 referred to in paragraph (2) below.

(2) The exempted vehicles do not have to conform with regulation 8(3), in so far as diagrams B2, B3 and B4 in the Schedule require a minimum clear headroom of 1250 millimetres for priority seats.

5.  The exemption given by article 4(2) shall only apply to a priority seat which is immediately next to a window.

6.  The exemption given by article 4(2) shall cease at the end of 30th April 2011.

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

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

Sally Keeble

Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State,

Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions

14th October 2001

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Order)

This Order authorises, until the end of 30th April 2011, the use of specified rail vehicles forming Class 175/0 and Class 175/1, although they do not comply with a requirement of the Rail Vehicle Accessibility Regulations 1998 because there is not the required headroom above some priority seats.

(1)

1995 c. 50.

(2)

S.I. 1998/2546, to which there are amendments not relevant to this Order.