The Rail Vehicle Accessibility (Midland Metro T69 Vehicles) Exemption Order 2001

1.  This Order may be cited as the Rail Vehicle Accessibility (Midland Metro T69 Vehicles) Exemption Order 2001 and shall come into force on 30th March 2001.

2.  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(1).

3.  This Order applies to the rail vehicles numbered 1 to 16 of the class known as “Light Rail Vehicle Type T69” (“the exempted vehicles)” as manufactured by Ansaldo Trasporti S.p.A. for use on Line 1 of the Midland Metro System.

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

(2) The provisions with which the exempted vehicle are not required to conform are—

(a) regulation 11(1)(a) and (b);

(b) regulation 13(4), but only in so far as it requires audible and visual announcements of the next stop to be made inside the passenger saloon while the vehicle is stationary at a station or a tram stop; and

(c) regulation 13(7).

5.—(1) If any alteration is made to an external doorway of an exempted vehicle or to the door-operating mechanism of such a doorway then the authorisation to use that vehicle even though that doorway does not have handrails which conform with regulation 11(1)(a) shall cease to have effect in relation to that vehicle.

(2) If any alteration is made to the layout of the seats or handrails inside an exempted vehicle then the authorisation to use that vehicle even though such handrails do not conform with regulation 11(1)(b) shall cease to have effect in relation to that vehicle.

6.—(1) The exemption given in respect of regulation 11(1)(a) and (b) shall cease at the end of 31st December 2038.

(2) The exemption given in respect of regulation 13(4) shall cease at the end of 30th April 2001.

(3) The exemption given in respect of regulation 13(7) shall cease at the end of 30th June 2001.

7.  The authorisation shall cease forthwith in respect of an exempted vehicle:

(a) which is operated by a person other than West Midlands Travel Limited unless the Secretary of State has been given written notice in advance specifying the name and address of that other person; or

(b) which is operated on a route other than that authorised to be constructed by the Midland Metro Act 1989(2) unless the Secretary of State has been given written notice in advance of that other route with a plan showing that route.

8.  The Orders specified in the Schedule to this Order are hereby revoked.

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 March 2001