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’.