Return to Archive -by date - by topic - Archive 2002.
DPTAC is clearly determined that no good deed shall go unpunished
Readers will not be surprised that my last tirade challenging the disability taliban to do something useful, rather than hounding train builder when the number of angels on the head of a pin is less than a quorum, went unanswered. It may be that they were up to their ears with the guidance document for the Rail Vehicle Accessibility Regulations 1998 (RVAR).
To recap, the Regulations apply to new vehicles coming into service after 1 January 1999 . The guidance was finally published on 20 June this year – 41 months late.
According to the Department for Transport, the Guidance is expected to be used as a source of best practice when vehicles are refurbished. However this is already covered by the Strategic Rail Authority's own Code of Practice on the subject.
Now read this latest bit of RVAR legislation.
STATUTORY INSTRUMENTS
2002 No. 1694
DISABLED PERSONS
TRANSPORT
The Rail Vehicle Accessibility (Isle of Wight Railway LCDR No. 2515 Vehicle) Exemption Order 2002
Made 28th June 2002
Laid before Parliament 3rd July 2002
Coming into force 31st July 2002
The Secretary of State, in exercise of the powers conferred upon him by section 47(1), (3) and (4) of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995[1], having consulted the Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee and such other persons as he considered appropriate in accordance with section 47(3) of that Act, hereby makes the following Order: -
Citation and commencement
1. This Order may be cited as the Rail Vehicle Accessibility (Isle of Wight Railway LCDR No. 2515 Vehicle) Exemption Order 2002 and shall come into force on 31st July 2002 .
Interpretation
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[2].
Application
3. This Order applies to the vehicle known as the London , Chatham and Dover Railway, 4 wheel, 5 compartment, 3rd Class Carriage, Southern Railway No.2515 ("the exempted vehicle") as owned, rebuilt and operated by the Isle of Wight Railway Company Limited.
Exemption 4. - (1) The exempted vehicle is hereby authorised to be used for carriage even though it does not conform with those provisions of the Rail Vehicle Accessibility Regulations 1998 referred to in paragraph (2).
I won't bore you with chapter and verse with Provisions a) to q) with which the exempted vehicle is not required to conform, but they include: the colour of the exterior doors does not contrast with that of the vehicle body; no audible warning device is fitted to passenger doorways; the requirements for the provision of priority seats have not been fully satisfied; the external handrails are not of the required diameter; the radius of the surface of the external handrails inside the curves is less than is permitted; more force than is permitted is required to operate the door handles; there is no passenger information system; the wheelchair space is not fitted with a communication device of the required specification; and the wheelchair symbol is not displayed as required next to the wheelchair space or beside the wheelchair compatible doorway.
Well, that makes the Desirostars look good. But then No 2515 was built in 1894.
How does it come to fall under RVAR? Well, those estimable people on the Isle of Wight Railway decided to take the opportunity, while LCDR No 2515 was being restored, to make it wheelchair accessible. Previously wheelchairs could only be carried in a van.
So one of the doors has been widened to take a standard wheel chair. And inside the partitioning has been altered to give access to two compartments which have wheel chair spaces.
And in return for this socially responsible attitude, someone has had to jump through the Parliamentary hoops to get RVAR exemptions. Memo to sister magazine, Shouldn't this feature in the next Ian Allan heritage awards (MC one Capt Deltic)?