The Rail Vehicle Accessibility (Amendment) Regulations 2000

Citation and commencement

1.  These Regulations may be cited as the Rail Vehicle Accessibility (Amendment) Regulations 2000 and shall come in to force on 31st December 2000.

Interpretation

2.  In these Regulations “the 1998 Regulations” means the Rail Vehicle Accessibility Regulations 1998(1).

Preliminary

3.  The 1998 Regulations shall be amended in accordance with the following provisions.

Amendment of regulation 2 (interpretation)

4.  In regulation 2(1) of the 1998 Regulations:

(a) the definition of “light maintenance depot” shall be omitted;

(b) for the words ““magnetic levitation” and “monorail”” there shall be substituted ““magnetic levitation”, “monorail” and “track-based with side guidance””; and

(c) after the end of the definition of “passenger saloon” there shall be inserted—

““photocell device” means a device which operates using a combination of a beam of light, a transmitter and a receiver;”.

Amendment of regulation 3 (application of regulations)

5.—(1) In regulation 3(1) of the 1998 Regulations for the words “or magnetic levitation systems”, there shall be substituted “, magnetic levitation systems or systems which are track-based with side guidance”.

(2) In regulation 3(2) of the 1998 Regulation the words “either” and “or the day after its first visit to a light maintenance depot following such occurrence, whichever shall be the sooner” shall be omitted.

Amendment of regulation 4 (doors)

6.  In regulation 4(3)(b) of the 1998 Regulations the word “only” shall be omitted.

Amendment of regulation 5 (door controls)

7.—(1) In regulation 5(1) of the 1998 Regulations, after the words “power-operated door”, there shall be inserted “, other than a device to which paragraph (3) below applies,”.

(2) In regulation 5(1)(b) of the 1998 Regulations for the word “pressure” there shall be substituted “force”.

(3) After Regulation 5(2) there shall be inserted the following paragraphs—

“(3) Subject to paragraph (4) below, no control device which opens a door automatically as a passenger approaches that door shall be fitted to a regulated rail vehicle unless:

(a) the door starts to open before any part of a passenger reaches a distance of less than 500 millimetres, measured horizontally, from the vertical centre line of the door surface;

(b) the door, once opened, remains open for a period of not less than 5 seconds before it closes; and

(c) if, after the door starts to close, the edge of the door comes into contact with any part of a passenger the door opens again.

(4) If a control device, to which paragraph (3) above applies, incorporates a photocell device positioned above the door, the requirement imposed by paragraph (3)(a) above will be complied with if the distance from the vertical centre line of the door is measured horizontally from any single point on that line not more than 300 millimetres above the floor”.

Amendment of Regulation 9 (tramcar request-stop controls)

8.—(1) In regulation 9(c) of the 1998 Regulations the word “a” shall be omitted on the first occasion on which it appears.

(2) In regulation 9(f) of the 1998 Regulations for the word “pressure” there shall be substituted “force”.

Amendment of Regulation 16 (wheelchair space specifications)

9.  In regulation 16(1)(f) of the 1998 Regulations for the words “marked on the fixed structure”, there shall be substituted “placed immediately next to, or in, the wheelchair space so as to identify the space as a wheelchair space”.

Amendment of Regulation 20 (toilets for disabled persons in wheelchairs)

10.  In regulation 20(1)(f)(ii) of the 1998 Regulations after the words “paragraph (2)” there shall be inserted “(a), (c), (d) and (e)”.

New Regulation 20A (wheelchair access to on board facilities)

11.  After Regulation 20 of the 1998 Regulations there shall be inserted the following regulation—

“20A.   There shall be no obstruction to prevent, or cause unreasonable difficulty to, a reference wheelchair being manoeuvred to, from, into or out of any wheelchair space, any toilet cubicle complying with Regulation 20 or any wheelchair-compatible sleeping compartment in that regulated rail vehicle.”

Amendment of Schedule, Diagram A (reference wheelchair)

12.  For Diagram A in the Schedule to the 1998 Regulations there shall be substituted Diagram A in the Schedule to these Regulations.

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

7th December 2000