Thousands of jobs are to be lost after Alstom gave ministers formal notice
that it will begin mothballing the historic Litchurch Lane train factory in
Derby.

The train maker laid the blame for the closure of what is seen as a
strategic national asset at the door of Mark Harper, the transport
secretary, after ten months of unsuccessful talks to secure new work and
what it said were a string of broken government commitments.

The Derby plant’s sole existing contract to build trains for the HS2
high-speed line, which has already been put back two years to 2026, could
now be diverted to Alstom’s factories in mainland Europe.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/3bed9a4a-0e49-4008-a8f8-a1a8ecbd1e7b?shareToken=029e752b80b82b97da19f61e4a3547e6

This reminds me of the last closure of a major UK train factory (Washwood
Heath), also by Alstom.

Some further background: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRLaioz1ZB8

On 30/03/2024 09:02, Recliner wrote:
> Thousands of jobs are to be lost after Alstom gave ministers formal notice
> that it will begin mothballing the historic Litchurch Lane train factory in
> Derby.
>
> The train maker laid the blame for the closure of what is seen as a
> strategic national asset at the door of Mark Harper, the transport
> secretary, after ten months of unsuccessful talks to secure new work and
> what it said were a string of broken government commitments.
>
> The Derby plant’s sole existing contract to build trains for the HS2
> high-speed line, which has already been put back two years to 2026, could
> now be diverted to Alstom’s factories in mainland Europe.
>
> https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/3bed9a4a-0e49-4008-a8f8-a1a8ecbd1e7b?shareToken=029e752b80b82b97da19f61e4a3547e6
>
> This reminds me of the last closure of a major UK train factory (Washwood
> Heath), also by Alstom.
>
>

--
Order alone is boring; complexity alone is chaos

JohnD <general@prodata.co.uk> wrote:
> Some further background: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRLaioz1ZB8
>

This strikes me as prime ministerial dither. The DfT would almost certainly
favour helping the Derby factory survive, but needs the Treasury to commit
to the future orders. As always, HMT would resist, so it's up to the PM
(who's effectively the minister for railway finance anyway), but he won't
make a decision.

Recliner <recliner.usenet@gmail.com> wrote:
> JohnD <general@prodata.co.uk> wrote:
>> Some further background: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRLaioz1ZB8
>>
>
> This strikes me as prime ministerial dither. The DfT would almost certainly
> favour helping the Derby factory survive, but needs the Treasury to commit
> to the future orders. As always, HMT would resist, so it's up to the PM
> (who's effectively the minister for railway finance anyway), but he won't
> make a decision.
>

Looks like Rishi finally made a decision:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/04/16/britain-alstom-train-factory-saved-order-transport/

Last-minute deal saves Britain’s biggest train factory from closure
Alstom secures vital new order after crunch talks with Transport Secretary
Christopher Jasper
16 April 2024 • 8:04pm

Britain’s biggest train factory is to be saved from closure following
crisis talks, after Transport Secretary Mark Harper agreed to sign off on a
vital new order.

Alstom’s plant in Derby, which employs 3,000 people and completed its last
remaining trains in March, is set to be awarded a deal for 10 new commuter
units after crunch discussions between Mr Harper and the French company’s
boss Henri Poupart-Lafarge.

The new work will commence in the first half of 2025 and cover a gap in
activity before the Derby plant begins construction of a fleet of express
trains for the HS2 line in mid-2026.

The drought period threatened the factory’s viability and Alstom told
unions earlier in April that a redundancy process for the 1,200 blue-collar
staff had to be restarted.

Mr Poupart-Lafarge travelled to London on April 16 to impress the
seriousness of the situation upon Mr Harper, a source said. The
breakthrough was reached when the Government agreed to finance an extra
five trains for the Elizabeth Line in addition to five others that had
already secured outline funding from the Treasury.

Earlier talks with the Department for Transport failed to result in any new
orders.

Mr Harper has now agreed to finance the construction of Aventra trains,
featuring a total of 90 railcars, sources close to the talks said.
Transport for London, which oversees the Elizabeth Line and will own the
new trains, still needs to present a formal business case for the purchase,
though that process is not expected to pose significant hurdles, the
sources said.

Alstom’s entire Litchurch Lane factory in Derby had faced closure following
the completion of final testing work in four or five months, a step that
would have thrown the HS2 programme into chaos and made Britain the only G7
country without a combined train design and manufacturing capability.

In message <0ACTN.28655$jC2.12432@fx06.ams1>, at 22:02:36 on Tue, 16 Apr
2024, Recliner <recliner.usenet@gmail.com> remarked:

>Alstom’s plant in Derby, which employs 3,000 people and completed its last
>remaining trains in March,
....
>The new work will commence in the first half of 2025

And what will they all be doing for the next twelve months? Still on
full pay, or are they being furloughed on minimum wage.
--
Roland Perry

Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> wrote:
> In message <0ACTN.28655$jC2.12432@fx06.ams1>, at 22:02:36 on Tue, 16 Apr
> 2024, Recliner <recliner.usenet@gmail.com> remarked:
>
>> Alstom’s plant in Derby, which employs 3,000 people and completed its last
>> remaining trains in March,
> ...
>> The new work will commence in the first half of 2025
>
> And what will they all be doing for the next twelve months? Still on
> full pay, or are they being furloughed on minimum wage.

I think temp staff have already been laid off, and they plan to do some
train refurbishment work there. For example, the 22x fleet is being
redeployed, and there may be some work required on them.

On Wed, 17 Apr 2024 07:31:25 +0100, Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> wrote:

>In message <0ACTN.28655$jC2.12432@fx06.ams1>, at 22:02:36 on Tue, 16 Apr
>2024, Recliner <recliner.usenet@gmail.com> remarked:
>
>>Alstom’s plant in Derby, which employs 3,000 people and completed its last
>>remaining trains in March,
>...
>>The new work will commence in the first half of 2025
>
>And what will they all be doing for the next twelve months? Still on
>full pay, or are they being furloughed on minimum wage.

Looks like they've laid off the body shop welders:
https://x.com/kevinjowen/status/1780297336763175042

They won't be building any new body shells for a while.

On 17.04.2024 08:31, Roland Perry wrote:
> In message <0ACTN.28655$jC2.12432@fx06.ams1>, at 22:02:36 on Tue, 16 Apr
> 2024, Recliner <recliner.usenet@gmail.com> remarked:
>
>> Alstom’s plant in Derby, which employs 3,000 people and completed its
>> last
>> remaining trains in March,
> ...
>> The new work will commence in the first half of 2025
>
> And what will they all be doing for the next twelve months? Still on
> full pay, or are they being furloughed on minimum wage.

This all seems omenously similar to the class 365 order that was
supposed to save York works back in the 1990s, and just postponed the
inevitable for a couple of years.

Robin

On Wed, 17 Apr 2024 18:13:58 +0200, Bob <bob@domain.com> wrote:

>On 17.04.2024 08:31, Roland Perry wrote:
>> In message <0ACTN.28655$jC2.12432@fx06.ams1>, at 22:02:36 on Tue, 16 Apr
>> 2024, Recliner <recliner.usenet@gmail.com> remarked:
>>
>>> Alstom’s plant in Derby, which employs 3,000 people and completed its
>>> last
>>> remaining trains in March,
>> ...
>>> The new work will commence in the first half of 2025
>>
>> And what will they all be doing for the next twelve months? Still on
>> full pay, or are they being furloughed on minimum wage.
>
>This all seems omenously similar to the class 365 order that was
>supposed to save York works back in the 1990s, and just postponed the
>inevitable for a couple of years.

The idea is that this order is to bridge the gap before HS2 train construction starts. There are also some other biggish
orders on the horizon, which might be steered towards that plant.

On 17/04/2024 18:13, Recliner wrote:
> The idea is that this order is to bridge the gap before HS2 train construction starts. There are also some other biggish
> orders on the horizon, which might be steered towards that plant.

Does assume that HS2 train construction is likely to start sometime soon.

--
Graeme Wall
This account not read.

On Wed, 17 Apr 2024 18:34:29 +0100, Graeme Wall <rail@greywall.demon.co.uk> wrote:

>On 17/04/2024 18:13, Recliner wrote:
>> The idea is that this order is to bridge the gap before HS2 train construction starts. There are also some other biggish
>> orders on the horizon, which might be steered towards that plant.
>
>Does assume that HS2 train construction is likely to start sometime soon.

2026, I think. The work is split between Newton Aycliffe and Derby.