Rolling Stock
BEN JONES analyses the challenges - and opportunities - ahead for Britain’s train builders, refurbishment specialists and their supply chains, as they a wait vital new orders
Giving evidence to the House of Commons Transport Select Committee on December 6 2023, Alstom UK and Ireland Managing Director Nick Crossfield raised a few eyebrows when he commented that the UK rolling stock market looks “quite attractive” in the medium to long term.
That assessment stands in contrast to the gloomy picture painted by many others in the rolling stock supply industry over the past 12 months.
As the glut of new orders placed in the optimistic pre-pandemic years (worth billions of pounds) reaches its conclusion, production lines in Newton Aycliffe, Derby and Newport face a potentially barren future - as well as job losses that will be devastating for their communities and supply chains.
Since Alstom/Hitachi secured the deal for 54 high-speed trains for HS2 in December 2021, just ten tri-mode inter-city trains (100 vehicles) have been ordered - by LNER, from CAF.
No other new orders have been placed for new passenger trains in the UK since December 2019.
Alstom’s Litchurch Lane plant in Derby has all but completed outstanding orders for ‘Aventra’ electric multiple units for South Western Railway and West Midlands Trains, while Hitachi Rail Europe is finishing off Class 805/807s for Avanti West Coast and Class 810 ‘Aurora’ bi-modes for East Midlands Railway.
In South Wales, CAF Rail UK’s Newport plant is working through an order for Class 197 diesel multiple units for Transport for Wales (TfW), and it will also assemble the 100-vehicle order for LNER by 2027, using components supplied from Spain.
Beyond that, there’s very little work in the pipeline to keep thousands of skilled train builders, engineers or their suppliers occupied beyond 2024.
One UK production site potentially affected by the bursting of the rolling stock ‘bubble’ has yet to even roll out its first vehicle.
Siemens’ Mobility’s assembly facility in Goole (East Yorkshire) is not open for business yet, but it will be responsible for around 50% of the new Piccadilly Line trains for London Underground. The remainder of the order is already in production at Siemens factories in mainland Europe.
