The Strikes (Minimum Service Levels: Passenger Railway Services) Regulations 2023

Interpretation

2.—(1) In these Regulations—

“the 1992 Act” means the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992;

“the 1993 Act” means the Railways Act 1993(1);

“passenger railway services” means—

(a)

infrastructure services; and

(b)

train operation services;

“infrastructure services” means any of the following services provided by an infrastructure manager —

(a)

reactive maintenance of any part of a network;

(b)

the exercise of day-to-day control over train movements over or along any track comprised in a network;

(c)

the operation or reactive maintenance (or both) of a railway signalling system or of any other railway communication equipment;

(d)

the operation or reactive maintenance (or both) of railway crossings, including level crossings, overbridges, underbridges and tunnels;

(e)

the control of electrical conductor rails or overhead lines, of any supports for such rails or lines, and of any electrical substations or power connections used or to be used in connection with such rails or lines, and the provision of electrical power by such rails or lines;

(f)

the provision or operation (or both) of services for the response to, and resolution of, incidents on or about the railway including services for the recovery or repair of locomotives or other rolling stock in connection with any accident, malfunction or mechanical or electrical failure;

(g)

the provision or operation (or both) of services for keeping track free from, or serviceable notwithstanding, obstruction (whether by snow, ice, water, fallen leaves or any other natural or artificial obstacle or hindrance) or for removing any such obstruction;

(h)

any of the following services for plant, equipment or machinery used in carrying on any of the activities specified in sub-paragraphs (a) to (g)—

(i)

provision;

(ii)

operation;

(iii)

reactive maintenance;

(i)

services provided for the purpose of reactive maintenance or stabling (or both) of rolling stock used in carrying on any of the activities specified in sub-paragraphs (a) to (h);

“light rail services” means passenger railway services provided on or in respect of any of the following light rail systems known at the time these Regulations come into force as—

(a)

Blackpool Tramway;

(b)

Docklands Light Railway;

(c)

Edinburgh Trams;

(d)

Glasgow Subway;

(e)

London Trams;

(f)

London Underground;

(g)

Manchester Metrolink;

(h)

Nottingham Express Transit;

(i)

Sheffield Supertram;

(j)

Tyne & Wear Metro;

(k)

West Midlands Metro;

“train operation services” means—

(a)

services for the carriage of passengers by railway by a person providing services—

(i)

under a franchise agreement within the meaning of section 23(3) of the 1993 Act(2);

(ii)

under, or secured under, the duty in section 30(1) of the 1993 Act(3);

(iii)

under an agreement to which one of the persons listed in section 24A(4)(a) of the 1993 Act(4) is a party; or

(iv)

under, or secured under, section 173(1) of the Greater London Authority Act 1999(5); or

(b)

the refuelling of any locomotive or other rolling stock used for the services mentioned in sub-paragraph (a) by the person providing those services.

(2) But services relating to the following are not passenger railway services for the purposes of these Regulations—

(a) a train operation service using a railway which the Office of Rail and Road(6) determines in accordance with regulation 2A(1) of the Railways and Other Guided Transport Systems (Safety) Regulations 2006(7) is a heritage, museum or tourist railway that operates on its own network;

(b) a train operation service that starts or terminates outside Great Britain.

(3) In this regulation—

(a) “infrastructure manager” has the same meaning as in regulation 3 of the Railways (Access, Management and Licensing of Railway Undertakings) Regulations 2016(8) and includes any person responsible for the provision of all of the infrastructure services (within the meaning of these Regulations) on behalf of the infrastructure manager, but in applying the definition in regulation 3 of those Regulations, references to “railway” in that definition are to be treated as having the meaning given in sub-paragraph (d);

(b) “services for the carriage of passengers by railway” has the same meaning as in Part 1 of the 1993 Act (see section 82(2) of that Act);

(c) “locomotive”, “network”, “rolling stock”, “station”, “track” and “train” have the meanings given by section 83(1) of the 1993 Act, but in applying the definitions in that subsection, references to “railway” in the definitions are to be treated as having the meaning given in sub-paragraph (d);

(d) “railway” has the meaning given by section 67(1) of the Transport and Works Act 1992(9) but includes a “tramway” within the meaning of that section;

(e) “reactive maintenance”, in relation to any thing, means maintenance which is necessary to ensure the availability, provision or operation of that thing (or any part of it).

(1)

1993 c. 43.

(2)

The definition of “franchise agreement” was amended by S.I. 2018/631.

(3)

Section 30 was substituted by section 212 of the Transport Act 2000 (c. 38). Subsection (1) was amended by paragraph 20 of Schedule 1 and Schedule 13 to the Railways Act 2005 (c. 14).

(4)

Section 24A was inserted by paragraph 8 of Schedule 8 to the Deregulation Act 2015 (c. 20); section 24A(4)(a) was amended by paragraph 13(2)(a) of Schedule 5 to the Cities and Local Government Devolution Act 2016 (c. 1).

(5)

1999 c. 29.

(6)

The Office of Rail and Road is a body corporate established by section 15 of the Railways and Transport Safety Act 2003 (c. 20). It was renamed by S.I. 2015/1682.

(7)

S.I. 2006/599; regulation 2A was inserted by S.I. 2013/950 and amended by S.I. 2015/1682.

(8)

S.I. 2016/645.

(9)

1992 c. 42.