A UNION leader is demanding a “banking style” government bail-out for Britain’s biggest train factory after Alstom said it will close with the loss of 1,300 jobs.
TSSA general secretary Maryam Eslamdoust urged transport secretary Mark Harper to take a publicly owned stake in the manufacturer as it started mothballing its Litchurch Lane factory in Derby.
She said: "The Tory government is idly allowing biggest Britain train factory to go to the wall.
"It's outrageous that the UK's largest train factory is facing closure at a time when there has never been a greater need for more passenger capacity on our railways."
She said Labour’s 2008 banking bail-out is the “approach to save the works at Alstom now.
Allowing the closure of the site “would be a shameful betrayal of these workers, their families, and the travelling public,” she added.
The firm and its joint venture partner Hitachi won a contract worth up to £2.8 million in 2021 to build 54 trains for the HS2 rail line.
But production lines at the site stopped work on new trains last month due to a lack of orders.
Alstom confirmed the final train from its current order book was completed on March 21, leaving its Litchurch Lane site with no committed workload until a HS2 order expected to start in mid-2026.
In a letter to Mr Harper, Alstom UK's managing director Nick Crossfield said: “The ending of train manufacture at Derby Litchurch Lane after 147 years is an outcome we have been working extremely hard to avoid.”
The Department for Transport said: “The Transport Secretary has clearly set out the complexity of the procurement process and it is wrong to suggest there is a simple solution.”
Unite East Midlands regional secretary Paresh Patel said: “This is a well-meaning but misguided intervention by a union which has a limited membership at Alstom.
“Urgent action is needed to preserve jobs and ensure the long-term manufacturing capacity at Alstom in Derby is maintained and future-proofed but that is the responsibility of government and the company. The government needs to bring forward rail procurement projects and sort out its supply line of work, to end the destructive cycle of fast and famine. While Alstom also needs to act accordingly and bring work to Derby from its other factories
“Time is ticking by, Unite believes both government and Alstom must urgently start putting into action a clear and robust plan to future proof the Derby site and in turn secure thousands of skilled jobs.”
