“It’s strange at the moment: everywhere’s so quiet. It’s not good.” Mick Waldram has worked at Alstom’s sprawling train manufacturing plant on Litchurch Lane in Derby for 20 years, like his parents before him, and has watched in recent months as its six production lines have been gradually mothballed.
“I’ve been here 20 years and my brother’s been here 20 years as well,” Waldram says. “My mum was the managing director’s secretary, she was here 38 years, and my dad was a projects engineer who was here 36 years. We want to stay here. Me and my brother are not looking at leaving, we want to stay here if possible, do another 20 years.”
Talks with the transport secretary, Mark Harper, on Tuesday raised hopes that a new order for 10 trains on London’s crowded Elizabeth line would safeguard the future of manufacturing at this historic site, which started work in the 1840s.
But after months of gnawing uncertainty for the 1,300 manufacturing staff whose jobs are at risk, and with kit standing idle and suppliers shuttered, no one is taking anything for granted.
One contractor based at Litchurch Lane, Paintbox, went into administration last year when its work painting new carriages dried up – although some of its staff have been taken on by Alstom. Motherson, which did the wiring on the trains, pulled out of the site. Another Alstom supplier, Solo Rail Solutions, in Birmingham, which made the doors, appointed administrators earlier this month.
With rail woven deeply into Derby’s local economy as well as its heritage, the campaign to close the gap in Alstom’s order book has attracted the support of scores of local businesses – with the slogan displayed on a giant banner at Derby County’s Pride Park ground during last weekend’s match.
Football fan Luke Brame, who completed his apprenticeship at the site and has worked there for nine years, says he feels proud of his handiwork as he travels around to watch matches.
“I don’t think we’re there yet: if you read the wording from the government, there’s caveats in there, there’s get out of jail cards,” says Darren Spencer, a production manager at the site and a rep for the Unite union. “We’re by no means out of the woods yet.”
Harper said he had reached an “agreement in principle” with Alstom on the 10 trains, subject to value for money for the taxpayer, adding that he was confident “a solution is now in sight”.
He and the trains minister, Huw Merriman, have stressed the complexity of the issue. But the Labour MP and shadow transport secretary, Louise Haigh, says it could have been resolved long ago.
“Mark Harper has spent months claiming a deal to save jobs at Alstom was out of his hands. It is shameful that he has had to be dragged kicking and screaming under pressure from Labour, the industry and Unite, just to come back to the table,” Haigh said.
She added: “Ministers need to end this cycle of chaos on our railways and develop a consistent rail procurement strategy to give certainty to manufacturers.”
Unite has worked in an unusually close double act with senior management at Alstom, in an attempt to convince the government that while future projections for the rail industry are upbeat, Litchurch Lane faces a potentially unbridgeable gap in its order schedule.
Staff and managers feared that could lead to hundreds of jobs and decades of expertise being lost – and new contracts being fulfilled overseas.
The cost of the downturn in orders is already evident onsite, where hundreds of workers gathered to mark the last train rolling off the production line late last month. Some have already taken voluntary redundancy, with more due to leave in the coming weeks.
except it often wasn't really working that well in other industries and they moved at just the point availability of skilled IT staff went down.
