1. This Order may be cited as the Rail Vehicle Accessibility (Great Western Trains Company Class 180 Vehicles) Exemption Order 2001 and shall come into force on 1st June 2001.

2. —(1) 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 ), and expressions used in those Regulations shall have the same meaning in this Order as they have in those Regulations.

(2) Any reference to a diagram is a reference to the diagram bearing that number in the Schedule to the Rail Vehicle Accessibility Regulations 1998.

3. This Order applies to rail vehicles numbered 50901 to 50914, 54901 to 54914, 55901 to 55914, 56901 to 56914 and 59901 to 59914 which form part of the diesel multiple-units numbered 180101 to 180114 of the class known as “Class 180” (“the exempted vehicles”) as manufactured by Alstom Transport Limited for use by Great Western Trains Company Limited.

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 comply with those provisions of the Rail Vehicle Accessibility Regulations 1998 referred to in paragraph (2) below.

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

(a) regulation 8(3), in so far as diagrams B2, B3 and B4 in the Schedule require a minimum clear headroom of 1250 millimetres for priority seats; and

(b) regulation 20(2), in so far as it requires that the passageway between the wheelchair space and the toilet cubicle for disabled persons in wheelchairs shall not be less than 850 millimetres wide at any point.

5. —(1) The exemption given by article 4(2)(a) shall only apply to a priority seat which is immediately next to a window.

(2) The exemption given by article 4(2)(b)—

(a) shall only apply to vehicle numbers 50901 to 50914 and 54901 to 54914; and

(b) only to a vehicle in which it is possible for a reference wheelchair to pass through the passageway referred to in article 4(2)(b) above.

6. The exemptions given by article 4 shall cease at the end of 30th April 2011.

7. The authorisation shall cease immediately in respect of an exempted vehicle which is operated by a person other than Great Western Trains Company Limited unless the Secretary of State has been given written notice in advance specifying the name and address of that other person.