§ Lord Skelmersdaleasked Her Majesty's Government:
How many of the 63 rail vehicle accessibility exemption orders listed on the Department for Transport's website apply to heritage railways. [HL992]
§ Lord Davies of OldhamSix exemption orders made under Section 47 of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 apply to heritage railways and tramways. These grant exemptions to vehicles regulated by the Rail Vehicle Accessibility Regulations (RVAR) and are operated by the Bristol Harbour Railway, Ffestiniog Railway Company, Furness Railway Trust, Isle of Wight Railway, Middleton Railway Trust and the Summerlee Heritage Park. A further three exemption orders apply to tourist railways. These are the Cairngorm Funicular Railway, East Hayling Light Railway, and Seaton Tramway.
The RVAR are aimed primarily at rail vehicles that are used in a public transport role. However, some vehicles operated by heritage and tourist railways and tramways have been subject to the RVAR when old vehicles have been converted to such an extent that they have been categorised as "new" vehicles for the purposes of the regulations or, as with Ffestiniog Railway and Seaton Tramway, entirely new vehicles have been constructed.
By their very nature, vehicles on heritage and tourist railways cannot meet many of the measures within the 51WA RVAR. However, officials from the Department for Transport work closely with the operators to ensure that accessibility is designed in wherever possible. Indeed, all these vehicles have some access features, even if they do not achieve full compliance with the RVAR—hence the need for these exemption orders.
Exemption orders for vehicles operated on heritage and tourist railways are usually granted for the lifetime of that vehicle. This policy is supported by the Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee, the department's statutory advisers on disability issues, which must be consulted on every exemption application.
The Government are taking powers in the Disability Discrimination Bill to enable them to exempt heritage and tourist railway systems from the RVAR. We intend to consult on detailed proposals, including a list of railways and tramways to be exempted, during the passage of the Bill. Even where heritage and tourist railways are granted an exemption, we expect that these will be made subject to conditions to assist disabled people.
§ Lord Skelmersdaleasked Her Majesty's Government:
How many rail vehicles have ceased to be covered by the Disability Discrimination Act rail vehicle accessibility exemption orders; and for how long such orders were in place. [HL993]
§ Lord Davies of OldhamSome 100 rail vehicles have entirely ceased to be covered by exemption orders made under Section 47 of the Disability Discrimination Act. As shown in the table below, the exemptions granted to these vehicles lasted a maximum of 13 months.
Operator and class Number vehicles granted exemptions Number of exemptions granted Expired so far How long were periods of exemption South Central 375/3 84 1 1 11 months South West Trains 170/3 16 2 2 1 to 13 months Exemption orders may contain exemptions from more than one of the requirements of the Rail Vehicle Accessibility Regulations 1998 and these individual exemptions may be for different time periods.
A further 1,247 rail vehicles are subject to exemption orders in which some 51 exemptions have expired. These orders still have other exemptions outstanding.The table below lists those operators who have been granted exemption orders that contain an exemption that has now expired. As the table demonstrates, the length of time for which each of the expired exemptions was granted is between three months and five years.
52WA
Operator and class Number of venichles granted exemptions Number of exemptions granted Exemptions expired so far Time periods for expired exemptions One Anglia 170/2 24 4 2 6 to 18 months Central 170/5 and 170/6 76 5 3 1 half to 2 half years Chiltern 168/1 19 4 2 6 months to 1 year South Eastern 375 210 6 3 4 to 13 months Croydon Tramlink 24 10 6 5 to 11 months Gatwick Express 460 64 17 4 9 to 21 months c2c 357 184 8 4 1 to 1 half years Midland Metro 16 12 10 4 months—21 quarter years Arriva/Serco 175/0 and 175/1 70 6 5 9 months ScotRail 170/4 72 4 3 3 months to 4 years ScotRail 334 120 4 1 10 months Serco Metrolink 6 2 1 13 half months South West Trains 458 120 14 6 15 months to 5 years Virgin 390 242 3 1 5 months Total 1,247 99 51