Northern: Rolling Stock

(asked on 1st March 2017) - View Source

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, which rolling stock on Northern Rail is (a) compliant with rail vehicle accessibility regulations and (b) has been given exemptions from rail vehicle accessibility regulations.


Answered by
Paul Maynard Portrait
Paul Maynard
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
This question was answered on 9th March 2017

Accessibility standards for trains operated on the mainline are set out in either the Rail Vehicle Accessibility Regulations 1998 or the Persons of Reduced Mobility Technical Specification for Interoperability (PRM-TSI) (under the Railways (Interoperability) Regulations 2011).

The following units are either built or have been upgraded to these standards:

Class 144; 1x2 car unit, , Class 321/9 – 3x4 car units, Class 322 – 5x4 car units, Class 333 – 16x4 car units.

The following fleets are currently undergoing upgrade programmes which are phased over a period of time. Accordingly, some units in each of these fleets will already have been upgraded, while others are scheduled to be upgraded between now and the end of 2019. The Department does not hold ‘live’ information about the number of units of each fleet that have been upgraded to date.

The fleets are:

Class 150/1 – 47x2 car units, Class 150/2 – 11x2 car units, Class 155 – 7x2 car units, Class 156 – 24x2 car units, Class 158/0 – 8x3 car units, Class 319/3 – 6x4 car units.

Other fleets currently operated by Northern which are to be retained after 1 January 2020 must be upgraded by the end of 2019. Northern will however be introducing 281 new rail vehicles by 2019 to replace outdated rolling stock.

Under the Railways (Interoperability) Regulations 2011, the Secretary of State has power to grant dispensations from the requirement to comply with one or more standards of the PRM-TSI. The following classes of vehicle operated by Northern have been granted dispensations:

Class 150, Class 156, Class 319/3, Class 321/9, Class 322. We are currently reviewing a request for dispensation for Class 158 vehicles. Details of the dispensations granted can be found on our website: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/heavy-rail-fleets-2020-targeted-compliance .

No exemptions have been granted against the Rail Vehicle Accessibility Regulations 1998.

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