starrymarkb
Established Member
Looks like Bombardier may be trying to get out of Derby
Via Zelo Street.
So Southern want 377s, Bombardier are offering 379s and aren't willing to give the customer what they want - isn't that why IE went to Hyundai?
Via Zelo Street.
But the people at Rail Business Intelligence have picked up on the companys dwindling interest in the Derby plant, as those receiving Roger Fords latest Informed Sources e-Preview today have seen.
Talk that [train operator] Southern could order some more Class 377 Electrostars [multiple unit trains] from Bombardier to ease the heat over Derbygate was confirmed on 16 September notes Roger. The order will be for 130 vehicles formed into 26 five coach sets. This would keep the Derby production line occupied for more than six months.
However, according to Informed Sources, Bombardier has been trying to sell Southern the more expensive Greater Anglia Class 379 design, rather than manufacture what its major customer needs some more of the simpler Class 377. Of course this will involve extra effort from Bombardier and its supply chain to switch back to the earlier build.
But if Bombardier were serious about keeping Derby open [my emphasis], you might expect them to be accommodating, especially since Southern could be in the market for over 350 Class 377 vehicles in the longer term. Elsewhere in the email, Roger concludes that for the foreseeable future, the railways in the UK are unlikely to generate enough orders to support even a single factory.
So Southern want 377s, Bombardier are offering 379s and aren't willing to give the customer what they want - isn't that why IE went to Hyundai?
very little attention has thus far been paid to the conduct of Bombardier Transportation, which has not been universally beneficial to some of the European countries in which it operates or no longer operates. Because this is a company with established form for buying up firms and then closing them down.
Bombardier told that its plants in Berlin were surplus to requirements: there was too much capacity and not enough demand. So the sites were left to Swiss manufacturer Stadler, who are expanding capacity by 50% and even adding an extra site to their facilities around the city.
Stadler, who had not previously been a serious player in the train building market, also benefited from Bombardiers actions in Switzerland a country, one might note, that is not in the EU where the latter bought and then closed down companies like Schindler and SLM. The Swiss demand for Bombardiers offerings has, not surprisingly, declined substantially.
Bombardier also ceased to be flavour of the month in Portugal, after they bought up Sorefame, whose distinctive Budd-style stainless finish can still be seen on many of the countrys trains, and then closed and asset-stripped the factory. Fortunately, substantial engineering capability was retained by operator CP at its Entroncamento site. A recent order for electric locomotives went to Siemens, not Bombardier.
Which brings us back to the UK, where Bombardier have deliberately run down the works at Crewe repair work ceased last year after management apparently lost interest, with machinery removal following and many of the buildings have been demolished. The present work, on bogies and wheelsets, could end at any time.
And management at Bombardier will not be too fussed if Derby follows Crewe into a slow decline. Already rumours are rife that part or all of the Crewe site is to be sold off for other uses, and thus Bombardier will retain rights to the technology, maximise their return, and retain shareholder value. Meanwhile, politicians will squabble among themselves and miss the main event.
With the workforce, of course, screwed over either way. Such is life.