6.—(1) This paragraph describes the threshold requirements which apply to specified kinds of essential services in the rail transport subsector.
(2) For the essential service of rail services the threshold requirements are—
(a)in Great Britain, any operator of a mainline railway asset but excluding operators of—
(i)railway assets solely for the provision of international rail services;
(ii)railway assets for metro, tram and other light rail, including underground, systems;
(iii)heritage, museum or tourist railways, whether or not they are operating solely on their own network; and
(iv)networks which are privately owned and exist solely for use by the infrastructure owner for its own freight operations or other passenger or freight services for third parties and operators of passenger or freight services on those networks (including high speed rail services);
(b)in Northern Ireland, any railway undertaking in Northern Ireland.
(3) For the essential service of high speed rail services the threshold requirement in the United Kingdom is an operator of a railway asset for high speed rail services.
(4) For the essential service of metros, trams and other light rail services (including underground services), the threshold requirement in the United Kingdom is an operator with more than 50 million annual passenger journeys.
(5) For the essential service of international rail services the threshold requirement in the United Kingdom is an operator of a Channel Tunnel train or the infrastructure manager of the Channel Fixed Link.
(6) In this paragraph—
(a)“operator” and “railway asset” have the same meaning as in section 6 of the Railways Act 1993 M1;
(b)“international rail service” means a rail service where all carriages on the train cross a border of the United Kingdom and that of a Member State, and where the principal purpose of the service is to carry passengers or goods between stations located in the United Kingdom and a station in at least one Member State;
(c)“mainline railway” has the same meaning as in the Railways and Other Guided Transport Systems (Safety) Regulations 2006 M2;
(d)“railway undertaking” has the same meaning as in section 55 of the Transport Act (Northern Ireland) 1967 M3 but excludes heritage railways operating solely on their own network; and
(e)“Channel Tunnel train” has the same meaning as in article 2(1) of the Channel Tunnel (Security) Order 1994 M4 and “Channel Fixed Link” has the same meaning as in section 1 of the Channel Tunnel Act 1987 M5.
Marginal Citations
M11993 c. 43. There are amendments not relevant to this instrument.
M2S.I. 2006/599 as amended by S.I.2013/950 and S.I. 2015/1682.