Mr.
Brazier: I am certain that the Minister does not think
that I want to be ungenerous to him personally, it is just that the
Opposition are anxious to see those new coaches and to know what the
time scale is. We have heard a lot about
them.
Mr.
Harris: However anxious the hon. Gentleman and his
Front-Bench colleagues are, I assure him that it does not compare with
the anxiety—I will clarify that, the eagerness—with which
I anticipate the delivery of the 1,300 new carriages, all of which will
run on our network before 2014 although most will be delivered long
before then. If he would like more detail, the Department for Transport
rolling stock plan is publicly available.
The hon.
Gentleman asked about input from the Disabled Persons Transport
Advisory Committee. DPTAC supported the changes and welcomed the end
date of 2020. It has been fully engaged with the development of the
regulations and I am sure that the Committee would expect no
less.
The hon.
Member for Cheadle asked about how onerous the new standards are. In my
original comments, I gave examples of how much less onerous they are.
For example, the maximum permitted floor gradients are higher under the
new regulations than under the RVAR, as are the maximum clearway and
door widths and the minimum duration and tone of door warnings. DPTAC
has been consulted on all of those changes and has no problems with any
of them.
On a wider
point, the hon. Member for Cheadle discussed the valid concern that we
should not make so many exemptions as to make the original legislation
somehow ineffective. I hope that he is not suggesting that previous
exemptions considered by Committees of the House have done that. When I
have introduced such exemptions, it has been in full consultation with
DPTAC and other organisations. There is certainly no Government
inclination to bail out, as he suggests, train operating companies or
rolling stock companies from their legal obligations. Any exemptions
will be made only with full consultation and with the support of the
stakeholders involved.
The hon.
Gentleman asked about the new light rail regulations. RVAR will remain
as present for light rail systems, and I expect to come forward with a
package
of revisions to that regime later this year. That might be a little more
specific than he expected. He also asked about the number of accessible
trains. As I said in my initial comments, there are currently 4,700,
but I anticipate no change to past forecasts regarding accessible
trains. I am more
than happy to write to hon. Members if I have not addressed their
specific questions, but I shall now address the comments of my right
hon. Friend the Member for Makerfield. I am delighted that he supports
the access for all programme, because it is very important. It involves
investment of £370 million over 10 years. Of course, he is more
than welcome to raise difficult and detailed questions tomorrow, in the
debate in Westminster Hall, with my right hon. Friend the Minister of
State, Department for Transport, but let me make a general point.
Accessibility to vehicles and accessibility to train stations are two
very different things for the simple reason that train stations have a
much longer shelf life. The process that we have embarked on, to try to
make more stations accessible, obviously will not be on the same scale
as other processes. At this stage, we cannot make promises regarding
all 2,500 stations, many of which were built in the Victorian era when
there were fewer concerns about the issue under discussion than there
are today. Having said that, we are doing our best to ensure that the
stations with the highest footfall and those that have been identified,
using the 2001 census, as being in the areas that have the highest
number of people with disabilities, will be addressed first.
The 2013
deadline that my right hon. Friend the Member for Makerfield mentioned
is for the current tranche of work. There will be subsequent tranches,
and there will be announcements about more stations that will receive
money through the access for all programme. Of course, my right hon.
Friend and I—indeed, all members of the Committee—would
prefer it if we could spend significantly more money over a shorter
period to make all 2,500 stations accessible immediately, but we are
all realistic enough to know that that is not possible. However, we
should make the maximum effort to ensure that as many stations as
possible are covered, and we are doing
that. I
rarely enjoy afternoons more, Mr. Key, than when I serve on
a Delegated Legislation Committee. In the hope that I have managed to
address most, if not all, of the concerns that have been raised, I ask
the Committee to support the
regulations. Question
put and agreed
to. Resolved, That
the Committee has considered the draft Rail Vehicle Accessibility
(Interoperable Rail System) Regulations
2008. Committee
rose at fourteen minutes past Five
o’clock.
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