Ministers Lord Hendy and Simon Lightwood have pulled no punches in their missive to rail industry leaders about future compliance with the PSV Accessible Information Regulations (AIR) by coaches on in-scope rail replacement services.
Exemptions from AIR end on 31 July. That date is fixed, Lord Hendy and Mr Lightwood note. There will be no extensions. They have told the rail sector to work with its coach operator suppliers and partners to deliver a sufficient number of compliant vehicles from 1 August.
Oh for it to be that simple, although the two ministers do acknowledge the pathway to this point. But in their letter, they note evidence of moves towards compliance having been insufficient thus far. Train operating companies (TOCs) are now urged to pull all the levers they can – including those marked ‘commercial’ – to drive uptake.
There is little over six months for the position to be rectified. Coaches with the necessary equipment to comply exist and are in use, while at least one manufacturer pre-wires new examples for them to easily accept such hardware.
Lord Hendy and Mr Lightwood suggest that some TOCs have elected to use exempted coaches that are not AIR compliant while others that do meet the standards are overlooked on the basis of them being more expensive to hire.
It would be interesting to hear if that has occurred in practice, but it is a heavyweight allegation nonetheless. While lacking the bombast of Baroness Vere’s past discourse with the coach industry – the recent letter having been copied to the heads of trade bodies that represent the sector – it still conveys a direct message.
And that could forerun a problem on 1 August. Does equipment exist in sufficient quantity to get the rail replacement coach pool to a compliant state by then? Who will install it? With the busy period in the meantime, can those vehicles be freed for work to be carried out?
Those are the questions that go without a solution in the ministerial correspondence. But the ponderable overriding them all is whether coach operators will judge the expense worthwhile. That Lord Hendy and Mr Lightwood talk of limited progress in achieving AIR compliance suggests that not many do yet.
Commercial levers could change that. Meanwhile, the ministers tell TOC chiefs that issuing do not travel warnings and significantly reducing rail replacement provision are neither acceptable nor desirable outcomes. But that could be what happens if a solution is not found over the coming six months.
Some small operators, including those that specialise in rail replacement have completed the fitment of AIR equipment. Systems used are of a high quality, and deliver information in a clear and concise way.
It can be done; what looks to be misunderstood once more is the extent of influence a TOC or the government can exert over other operators to follow suit where rail replacement is a small portion of their work. That may manifest itself in August.
Also notable is the lack of direct reference to PSVAR. The ministers note a wider commitment to accessibility and how “endless exemptions are not the solution,” but no indication of what the landscape for PSVAR on rail replacement might be from 1 August – at which point those separate exemptions also expire – leaves that plate still spinning.
