Patience in Derby with the Government over the plight of Alstom’s train building works in the city has now run out, according to the managing director of Marketing Derby.
John Forkin revealed in a post on X last night that ‘A senior government representative pulled out of a meeting with Team Derby today so we will take the gloves off and open up a community-wide campaign to save UK train design and building.’
The identity of the government representative has not been revealed.
Alstom UK and Ireland managing director Nick Crossfield has already warned that the process of declaring 1300 redundancies is under way, after the works in Litchurch Lane ran out of new contracts. There is also concern about another 700 jobs at the Hitachi plant in County Durham, while thousands of additional jobs in the railway supply chain are set to be lost if the factories close for good.
Mr Crossfield has predicted that the fleet for HS2, which is to be supplied jointly by Alstom and Hitachi, may have to be built abroad, and that Britain could become the only country in the G7 to have no domestic train-building centre.
Rail minister Huw Merriman wrote to industry stakeholders at the end of January, setting out plans for four rolling stock procurement contracts, but only one is a candidate for this year.
He said the indicative contract award date for more than 600 vehicles for Southeastern is set for early 2025, but that the Department is ‘considering scope to bring forward to December 2024’.
In his letter, Mr Merriman also said that ‘The Secretary of State has made clear his ambition to grow demand back and create a thriving railway, and to support the creation of high-quality jobs in a strong and resilient UK manufacturing sector,’ and went on to encourage train builders ‘to seek export opportunities’.