Capital Allowances Act 2001

Capital Allowances Act 2001

2001 CHAPTER 2

Commentary on Sections

Glossary

Part 2: Plant and machinery allowances

Chapter 10: Long-life assets

Section 95: Railway assets

416. This section is based on section 38B(4) of CAA 1990. It excludes expenditure on railway assets incurred before 1 January 2011 and used for a railway business from being long-life asset expenditure.

417. Subsections (2) and (3) define “railway asset” and “railway business”.

418. Subsection (4) extends the exemption to trains used to travel between the UK and another country.

419. Subsections (5) gives “railway” the same meaning as in section 81(2) of the Railways Act 1993. The text of this definition is:

“(2) Where it is stated for the purposes of any provision of this Part that railway has its wider meaning, “railway” shall be taken, for the purposes of that provision, to mean:

• a railway;

• a tramway; or

• a transport system which uses another mode of guided transport but which is not a trolley vehicle system, and cognate expressions shall be construed accordingly.

(3) In paragraphs (a) to (c) of subsection (2) above “guided transport, “railway”, “tramway” and “trolley vehicle system” have the meaning given by section 67(1) of the Transport and Works Act 1992.”

420. Section 67(1) of the Transport and Works Act 1992 gives the following further definitions:

• ““guided transport system” means transport by vehicles guided by means external to the vehicles (whether or not the vehicles are also capable of being operated in some other way)

• “railway” means a system of transport employing parallel rails which-

  • provide support and guidance for vehicles carried on flanged wheels

  • form a track which either is of a gauge of at least 350 millimetres or crosses a carriageway (whether or not on the same level)

• “tramway” means a system of transport used wholly or mainly for the carriage of passengers and employing parallel rails which-

  • provide support and guidance for vehicles carried on flanged wheels, and

  • are laid wholly or mainly along a street or in any other place to which the public has access (including a place to which the public only has access on making a payment)

• “trolley vehicle system” means a system of transport by vehicles constructed or adapted for use on roads without rails under electric power transmitted to them by overhead wires (whether or not there is in addition a source of power on board the vehicles).”

421. Subsection (6) gives other terms the same meaning as in the Railways Act 1993. These definitions are:

• ““goods” includes mail, parcels, animals, plants and any other creature, substance or thing capable of being transported, but does not include passengers;

• “light maintenance depot” means any land or other property which is normally used for or in connection with the provision of light maintenance services, whether or not it is also used for other purposes;

• “station” means any land or other property which consists of premises used as, or for the purposes of, or otherwise in connection with, a railway passenger station or railway passenger terminal (including any approaches, forecourt, cycle store or car park), whether or not the land or other property is, or the premises are, also used for other purposes;

• “track” means any land or other property comprising the permanent way of any railway, taken together with the ballast, sleepers and metals laid thereon, whether or not the land or other property is also used for other purposes; and any reference to track includes a reference to–

  • any level crossings, bridges, viaducts, tunnels, culverts, retaining walls, or other structures used or to be used for the support of, or otherwise in connection with, track; and

  • any walls, fences or other structures bounding the railway or bounding an adjacent or adjoining property;”