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’.

Hope Valley The £150 million project to increase capacity on the Hope Valley line between Manchester and Sheffield has been completed. Rail minister Huw Merriman is visiting Dore & Totley station today, where he will open a second platform, reversing British Rail cutbacks in the 1980s. The existing platform has also been lengthened, and new loops laid elsewhere on the route so that faster trains can pass slower ones. Strike Train services are seriously disrupted on c2c, Greater Anglia, Govia Thameslink Railway, Southeastern and South Western Railway today because of a 24-hour strike by ASLEF drivers in their continuing pay dispute. Many stations in south east England are closed. There has already been a new series of strikes at other operators, which were staged on Friday and Saturday. An associated ban on overtime and rest day working, which can also affect services, is continuing at most National Rail operators in England until tomorrow. A further ASLEF walkout is planned on LNER on 20 April, with an overtime ban from 19 to 21 April, in a separate dispute over bargaining procedures. Probe A major investigation of ground conditions by geological specialists is under way at Grand-over-Sands on the Cumbrian Coast line, where a Northern train was derailed on 22 March. No one was hurt, but the track was damaged. Engineers found a void in the ground 150m away from the crash site. The six coach train has now been removed by crane, and engineers have been drilling test bore holes to gather information about the conditions of the underlying soil and rock. Network Rail said the line is likely to be closed for the rest of April. Doors Heritage train operator West Coast Railways has enlisted the support of MPs in its continuing campaign to allow the use of hinged doors without full central locking on its fleets of Mk1 and Mk2 coaches. The steam-hauled Jacobite service between Fort William and Mallaig has been cancelled because the Office of Rail and Road refused to renew an exemption which had allowed the trains to run. WCR is asking rail minister Huw Merriman to intervene, while a petition opposing the ban has been launched by a shopkeeper in Mallaig.

Disruption is expected from today as ASLEF stages pay strikes at Avanti West Coast, East Midlands Railway, West Midlands Trains and CrossCountry. Further strikes have been called tomorrow at Chiltern Railways, GWR, LNER, Northern and TransPennine Express, and at c2c, Greater Anglia, Govia Thameslink Railway, Southeastern and South Western Railway (main line, depot drivers and Island Line) on Monday. ASLEF drivers are also refusing to work rest days from 4 to 6 April and from 8 to 9 April, which could lead to some services being changed or cancelled. However, strikes which had been set to go ahead on London Underground on 8 April and 4 May have been called off after progress with talks, although a separate walkout is still planned on LNER on 20 April, accompanied by an overtime ban from 19 to 21 April, in a dispute over bargaining procedures.

Network Rail chief executive Andrew Haines is predicting that Control Period 7 will mean meeting the challenges of ‘climate change, train performance, industry revenue and reform’. Control Period 7 began on 1 April, and this five year budget is expected to be the last for Network Rail in its present form, because NR is set to become Great British Railways within the next two or three years. The six previous Control Periods go back to the launch of Railtrack on 1 April 1994, when it was separated from British Rail. It was then floated on the London Stock Exchange in May 1996. The following years did not prove to be happy ones. Railtrack struggled with the runaway budget of West Coast Modernisation, while several serious accidents occurred between 1997 and 2002. In the end, with its finances out of control, the company was placed in railway administration in October 2001 and replaced by ‘not for dividend’ Network Rail the following year. Changes to statistical rules meant that NR was officially classified as a government body in 2014. Control Period 6 began with widespread timetable failures in May 2018. These led to the inquiry by Keith Williams, who concluded that the railway lacked integration and recommended the creation of a ‘guiding mind’. Andrew Haines said: ‘The last five years has seen unprecedented change, not just at Network Rail, but across the world. Our railway kept essential workers and freight moving during the Covid pandemic, and of course we’re now faced with a different challenge – building passenger numbers back. ‘We are doing that through putting passengers first and getting closer to our customers. ‘We started that process right at the beginning of the period as Network Rail devolved into five regional business, themselves split into 14 routes, to better respond to, and work with, our train operating colleagues, the Welsh and Scottish Governments, combined and local authorities and funders. It put us in a strong position to respond to the enormous change that hit us with the pandemic, and gave us the flexibility to bounce back afterwards. ‘The creation of a new integrated rail body – Great British Railways – is designed to re-join track and train and aims to deliver a better, simpler, greener railway for all users. It will mark the end of Network Rail but that is something we look forward to in the interest of better serving our nations.’

Labour’s shadow transport secretary Louise Haigh is accusing the Government of ‘complacency, negligence and creating chaos for Britain’s rail manufacturing industry’. She has been visiting the Alstom works in Litchurch Lane Derby, where the factory is being mothballed because of a lack of orders for new trains.  Alstom has announced it will have to start preparing for 1,300 redundancies. Hitachi has also said that up to 700 jobs are at risk at its Newton Aycliffe works in County Durham. Alstom UK managing director Nick Crossfield has blamed the Government for ‘continued delay in providing us with certainty and clarity’. In a leaked letter to transport secretary Mark Harper, he said: ‘The ending of train manufacture at Derby Litchurch Lane after 147 years is an outcome we have been working extremely hard to avoid. ‘After 10 months of inconclusive discussions, we must now begin the arduous and disruptive task of demobilising manufacturing operations at Derby Litchurch Lane. ‘A production gap of this scale is totally unsustainable for Alstom and our supply chain to manage.’ Labour said it has called on ministers to ‘urgently explore all options’ to avoid job losses, including amending or bringing forward rolling stock contracts. Louise Haigh said: ‘Our rail manufacturing industry is in crisis. Manufacturers’ order books have dried up as the transport secretary has sat back and done nothing about it. Our rail industry needs certainty, stability and leadership. This government has only given them complacency, chaos and negligence, with avoidable job losses being the result. ‘The transport secretary has questions to answer on why he has failed to deliver on agreements to maintain a consistent order schedule for rail manufacturers. The sector urgently needs a long-term rolling stock strategy to provide stability and certainty. ‘Britain was the country that created the railways, but that legacy is being trashed by a Conservative Government that is content to oversee its managed decline.’ The Department for Transport has said that ‘rail manufacturing plays an important role in growing the UK economy and delivering better services for passengers. ‘The Government is committed to supporting the entire sector and we remain in close contact with Alstom to secure a sustainable future for rail manufacturing at Derby.’

Alstom winds down Alstom has given formal notice to the government that it has started mothballing its Derby site at Litchurch Lane after talks to obtain new work failed, at least in the shorter term. As a result thousands of jobs are at risk, including many in the supply chain. Alstom said the lack of a ‘meaningful workload’ until mid-2026 was ‘unsustainable’. Concerns also continue about the future of the Hitachi train-building plant in County Durham, again because orders for new trains have dried up. Strike warning Train operators in England are warning of severe disruption in the next few days as ASLEF drivers stage new strikes in their continuing dispute over pay. The walkouts are planned for Friday, Saturday and Monday at various operators, but services will be affected on other days by an overtime ban from Thursday to Saturday and again on Monday and Tuesday. Landslip line must close for two weeks The railway between Tonbridge and Redhill will be closed for at least two weeks, after an embankment which has caused problems in the past moved again. Services were cancelled over the Easter weekend while emergency repairs were carried out, but Network Rail said an assessment has revealed the need for more work.

More than 95 per cent of the National Rail network will be open for business over the Easter weekend, said Network Rail. However, disruption is also on the way from later next week as ASLEF stages pay dispute strikes at Avanti West Coast, East Midlands Railway, West Midlands Trains and CrossCountry on Friday 5 April, at Chiltern Railways, GWR, LNER, Northern and TransPennine Express on 6 April, and at c2c, Greater Anglia, Govia Thameslink Railway, Southeastern and South Western Railway (main line, depot drivers and Island Line) on 8 April. ASLEF drivers will also refuse to work rest days from Thursday 4 to Saturday 6 April and from Monday 8 to Tuesday 9 April, which could lead to some services being changed or cancelled. The £90 million plans for Easter engineering will affect the West Coast Main Line between London and Milton Keynes, while track replacements and upgrades are carried out. Trains will terminate at Milton Keynes Central from tomorrow until Easter Monday inclusive. Work will continue on the Transpennine Route Upgrade, with new tracks being laid in the Huddersfield area, while a major junction between Glasgow Central and Cambuslang will be renewed. Network Rail’s network strategy director Lawrence Bowman said: ‘We know how important Easter is for families and friends to catch up and we try to keep as much of the network open as possible. There’s never a good time to do the work we need to do but the four days of the bank holiday, when fewer people are travelling, give us the opportunity to do major work we couldn’t do in normal weekend. That’s projects such as renewing major junctions or relaying many miles of track. ‘When we do close the railway, we do everything we can to get as much work into those closures as possible. We’ve got 493 different pieces of work taking place this Easter, most happening overnight,  including laying over 8,000 metres of new rail and putting down over 40,000 tonnes of new ballast. ‘We couldn’t do this without the support of passengers, freight users and our lineside neighbours, whose patience we don’t take for granted. Thank you.’

A new report from the Railway Industry Association is calling for a shakeup of how railway fares are charged, with the aim of making tariffs simpler and easier to understand. The report mentions recent research commissioned by RIA and carried out by Steer, which found that passenger numbers could grow between 37 per cent and 97 per cent by 2050. Even a rise of 37 per cent would exceed totals recorded in the 1920s, the previous busiest decade. A 97 per cent increase, resulting in around three billion journeys annually, would be unheard-of. RIA is asking for a consistent ‘stable national vision’ for fares which balances national and regional interests while ensuring the ‘right balance’ between the private and public sectors. It also says there should not be differences between ticketing systems which block simple travel purchases. There should be a ‘level playing field’ for all organisations involved in selling tickets, with data and other information being freely available. Finally, RIA wants to see a ‘clear contracting framework’ which attracts new ticket sellers and ‘fosters collaboration’. RIA’s innovation director Milda Manomaityte said: ’Providing better, simplified fares and ticketing, rooted in the principles of trust and value, are vital. We hope rail policy makers, stakeholders and all those in the railway industry with an interest in fares and ticketing find this report a useful contribution to the debate on how we can boost revenues and rebuild trust in rail in the future.’

The route of Northern Powerhouse Rail is set to include Warrington Bank Quay and Manchester Airport, following extensive discussions between the Department for Transport and local leaders in the north west, including MPs. The DfT said it was announcing the ‘next steps’ for NPR between Liverpool and Manchester, and that the Warrington-Manchester Airport route is now the ‘primary option’. However, it is not yet definite. The Government said it will ‘continue to assess alternatives which meet the objectives of Northern Powerhouse Rail, in line with standard requirements for business case approvals’. It continued: ‘Any scheme must be affordable and demonstrate value for money for the taxpayer, while seeking to support the rail capacity needs of central Manchester and deliver faster journey times and better connectivity across the North.’ It added that capacity could also be trebled between Liverpool and Leeds, offering 2,100 extra seats an hour in each direction. Transport secretary Mark Harper said: ‘Today we are setting out the next steps for how we can transform east-west rail links in the North, helping to boost economic growth between key Northern cities as part of our Network North plan. ‘I thank local leaders and local MPs for sharing their views and facilitating constructive conversations. I have heard a clear consensus which means we can now take another crucial step towards delivering Northern Powerhouse Rail, part of this Government’s plan to boost rail capacity, deliver faster journey times and offer better connectivity across the North.’

The warnings are getting louder (writes Sim Harris). Alstom’s managing director for its works at Litchurch Lane Derby has said that ‘time is short’, after production of the order for Arterio units for South Western Railway came to an end. Bombardier’s name for this fleet was Aventra, but SWR rechristened its new trains, while Bombardier itself is now part of history, because it was taken over by Alstom in 2021. As things stand, there appears to be a real risk that Alstom Derby will soon become part of history too, although there may some comfort to be taken from a letter written by rail minister Huw Merriman at the end of January, in which he outlined plans for orders from four operators, three of which are nationalised. Nick Crossfield at Alstom has not given up hope. Litchurch Lane is the largest installation in his area as managing director for the UK and Ireland, and Alstom itself is plainly reluctant to bring down the axe on Britain’s last remaining traditional train building ‘factory’. Speaking to the BBC before the weekend, Mr Crossfield said: ‘We're coming to the end of a very large programme that we've delivered over the past four years. New build is in the process of ending right now. Between now and May-June time, we will effectively go down to a position where there is very little or no activity in what is one of the group's largest facilities worldwide. ‘We've been in discussions with the Government now for around 10 to 11 months and we've been exploring with the Government the possibility of bringing work into the facility for the next 18 months. The market is there in the medium to long term. What we're talking about is covering a gap of around 18 to 19 months. ‘We've been talking to the Government specifically about accelerating future projects and refurbishment projects into the facility that would allow us to maintain that capability, and when the market comes back and the volume starts to return, we can re-mobilise. But we've been at this now for 11 months and we're here at this point in time with no firm commitment. ‘As we sit today, we don't have enough of a commitment to guarantee that we will maintain a presence in the UK at Derby. We've got some very specific proposals which we've suggested to the Government that would work for us. But we do need a decision, we need a clear commitment that this volume will come. ‘They've been collaborative discussions, they've been very detailed discussions. We've provided the Government with a great degree of information and the rationale for why it makes sense to do these things. But unfortunately we are here with no decision. It's a straight business decision we do not have today the commitment that would allow us to take the decision to remain.’ Meanwhile, if only the next 18 months can be covered, then Adessia could come to the rescue. Adessia is Alstom’s name for its next generation of commuter trains, and Derby could be a lead contender to built these future fleets, partly because it has been a specialist in building aluminium-bodied trains for more than 20 years. Commuter or shorter range trains have been Derby’s salvation before. At the start of this century Litchurch Lane won large orders for its Electrostar model, which replaced the majority of the ex-British Rail slam door fleets on the third rail network south of London, and also on the London, Tilbury and Southend line. In May 2014, the Derby workforce helped to celebrate the delivery of the 1000th Electrostar vehicle for Southern alone. The model was so successful that one batch was exported to South Africa for the line to Johannesburg airport. Electrostar’s successor was the Aventra, and one major order came in for Crossrail, as the Elizabeth line was known during the construction period. Other customers have included London Overground, Greater Anglia and, as we have said, South Western Railway. Alstom is permitting itself a moderate degree of optimism. The company says: ‘Adessia will be Alstom’s next generation of commuter train, and it is a huge opportunity for Derby and the wider UK rail sector. We are continuing to hold very constructive discussions with the Department for Transport to find a sustainable future for Derby, but time is short as our current projects are almost complete. ‘We are committed to working with the Government to create the certainty our staff and UK suppliers need and deserve.’ The Department for Transport said: ‘Rail manufacturing plays an important role in growing the UK economy and delivering better services for passengers. The Government is committed to supporting the entire sector and we remain in close contact with Alstom to secure a sustainable future for rail manufacturing at Derby.’ But the lack of new train orders is not only affecting Derby. The Hitachi plant at Newton Aycliffe, which was set up in 2015 to build the Class 80x Intercity Expresses, is also running out of work, although it was so busy a few years ago that Class 802s for GWR had to be built in Italy instead. Reports this morning say that ‘serious concerns’ have been voiced over the future of the Newton Aycliffe plant, in spite of two years of talks with Government. The factory is currently building its final trains for Avanti West Coast and East Midlands Railway, but there is nothing definite to follow. Hitachi said: ‘We have been engaged in discussions at all levels of UK government for two years in an attempt to find a solution to the production gap at our Newton Aycliffe manufacturing facility. Disappointingly these discussions have not resulted in a positive resolution. ‘We are now reviewing all remaining options available to us in order to keep our manufacturing teams building rolling stock to support the UK rail industry.’