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1M views 5K replies 395 participants last post by  Robert198812345 
#1 ·
Parts of Britain face delays as train guards strike over safety
2 June 2005

LONDON (AP) - Train passengers traveling between London and parts of northern England face delays Friday when guards stage a 24-hour strike in a long-running dispute over rail safety.

About 150 members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport Union will walk out at midnight Thursday in the second of a series of four stoppages scheduled for Fridays on services run by Midland Mainline.

The union argues that there should be several guards on each train instead of just one, which Midland Mainline says is sufficient.

"The company is well aware that one guard cannot possibly cover the whole of a multiple unit train because there is no access between units," said general secretary Bob Crow.

"After last Friday's successful stoppage we hoped that Midland Mainline would remove their heads from the sand and talk, but our calls have once more fallen on deaf ears, and strike action is the only weapon we have left.

Midland Mainline, which operates services from London to Leicester, Leeds, York and other northern destinations, said the action would force alterations to services, and apologized to passengers for the expected disruptions.
 
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#2,409 ·
From Railway Gazette:

http://www.railwaygazette.com/news/...way-on-west-midlands-franchise-shortlist.html

East Japan Railway on West Midlands franchise shortlist
07 Apr 2016



UK: Three bidders have been shortlisted for the next West Midlands passenger franchise, the Department for Transport announced on April 7. DfT is expected to issue the invitation to tender in July, with bids to be submitted in November. It expects to award the contract in June 2017, ready for the new franchise to start in October 2017.

The shortlisted bidders are:
  • London & West Midlands Railway Ltd, a bid vehicle formed by the Govia joint venture of Keolis (35%) and Go-Ahead Group (65%) which has operated the current franchise since 2007 under the London Midland brand;
  • West Midlands Trains Ltd, a subsidiary of the Abellio Transport Group Ltd business of Dutch national passenger operator NS, with East Japan Railway and Mitsui Corp as minority partners;
  • MTR Corp (West Midlands) Ltd, formed by Hong Kong MTR subsidiary MTR Corp (UK) Ltd.
The West Midlands franchise covers commuter and inter-regional passenger services across an area of central England centred on Birmingham, including services along the West Coast Main Line from London Euston in the south to Liverpool Lime Street in the northwes

..t.
 
#2,410 ·
RGI said:
First TransPennine Express Ltd has awarded Hitachi Rail Europe and leasing company Angel Trains a contract to supply 19 five-car AT300 electro-diesel multiple units for use on the TransPennine Express franchise in northern England from December 2019.
...
The initial vehicles are to be supplied from Hitachi’s Kasado factory in Japan, but the majority will be assembled at the company’s UK plant at Newton Aycliffe.
Source
Hurray, buy mote Jap trains its clearly extremely good for UK :eek:hno:
theguardian said:
The Canadian plane and train manufacturer Bombardier is to cut 7,000 jobs – one-tenth of its global workforce – over the next two years, including 1,350 in the UK.
...
Bombardier’s Belfast business, one of Northern Ireland’s biggest employers, will be hit particularly hard. Bombardier is reducing the workforce by a fifth; 580 job losses are planned for this year and another 500 next year.
...
Another 270 jobs will go at Bombardier’s train-making factories across the UK, including Derby, its main site, which has just come to the end of a large contract for London Underground.
Source
 
#2,411 · (Edited)
^^ Do not use the word "Jap" - it's counted as a slur by them due to the use by Americans during WWII. We avoid using pejorative terms when possible.

Clearly Bombardier has structural problems and if they are having to slough jobs then they were probably not the best competitor for the tender, no? Why go with a company that clearly was not performing.
 
#2,413 ·
Svartmetall said:
Clearly Bombardier has structural problems and if they are having to slough jobs then they were probably not the best competitor for the tender, no? Why go with a company that clearly was not performing.
Need answers why Bombardier cuts UK jobs, not a problem, here it is clearly stated. Plant isn't feed properly and must reduce staff, it already happened in the short past and none conclusions were drawn from that. But due to this topic policy I bow before 100 jobs created in Newton Aycliffe with possibility of increase to 400, who would bother that as a result of this policy triple of that was lost during few years... .
 
#2,414 ·
Most of the job cuts in Bombardier are in their aircraft manufacturering business not the train manufacturing part which I understand has a healthy order book...

Nobody seems to remember the third big manufacturer (who in the interests of transparency I work for although not in rolling stock) who while they don't assemble the trains in the UK actually use a higher proportion of UK components than the trains being built in Newton Aycliffe
 
#2,416 ·
^^Yeah right, present Bombardier faith is a direct response to IEP awarded to Hitachi and subsequently Thameslink to Siemens with Crossrail fleet taken out of it and awarded to Bombardier because without it Derby works would be closed by now. Lets read what Bombardier had to say after IEP went to Hitachi:
derbytelegraph said:
Bombardier was unable to comment on the decision yesterday because it is still "reserve bidder" in the IEP deal, but the firm is also still in the running to win a £1.4 billion contract to build 1,200 vehicles for the Thameslink programme.
Bombardier, which employs 3,000 people at its Litchurch Lane plant, is competing with German rival Siemens to win the contract.
Source

And here is what Wikipedia adds:
After Siemens was named preferred bidder in June 2011 to construct the new rolling stock for Thameslink services through London, Bombardier announced it was to cut 1,400 out of the 3,000 jobs at Derby.
...
By February 2012 the plant had reduced its workforce to approximately 1,600 and it revived again in 2014 with orders from Gatwick Express and Crossrail
So UK lost almost 1500 jobs in Bombardier in return for possibly 400 in Hitachi. And on other hand even with latest layoffs of 270 people Bombardier employs three time as much as Hitachi despite half loaded factories... .
 
#2,417 ·
Before you were saying that as long as it was European it was fine (despite Bombardier being Canadian), now you are saying that orders shouldn't be placed with Siemens either?? Sorry but we don't live in a heavily protectionist country, Bombardier will just have to compete with the others.

As the article you quoted says the Bombardier workforce was increased in 2014 due to the Gatwick Express contract, I'm sure it will go up and down again in future as they win and lose contracts, what isn't going to happen is that Bombardier will be guaranteed all future contracts, and nor should it.
 
#2,418 ·
If You would read my earlier posts properly You wouldn't gone into such conclusions. First of all I've pointed out that Britain has its factory which was quickly overturned as “Canadian company which doesn't make any difference to Japanese one” so here are data for that:
RGI said:
According to DfT the train order will support 760 UK manufacturing jobs plus 80 apprenticeships, and an estimated 74% of contract spend will remain in the UK economy. Bombardier's target is for at least 25% of the value of the contract to go to small and medium-sized companies.
The contract includes maintenance of the fleet. Construction of the depot at Old Oak Common will support 244 jobs plus 16 apprenticeships, and once operational it will support 80 train maintenance job.
Source
For comparison Hitachi created 100 jobs and is aiming at 400 which clearly marks difference between assembly line and production plant despite both being theoretically foreign companies. The IEP and Crossrail deals are fairly comparable in amount and with both awarded to Bombardier would secure full jobs in that company. On other hand the same could be achieved by Thameslink deal and this is why only after that announcement jobs were effectively halved in Bombardier and never recovered. Quite simply they won't return without UK orders because due to tight clearance and high working costs there won't be orders from other countries which can do it cheaper.

And as for EU versus rest of the World I've said it clear - either You will order there or You will have to bailout that country - which do You prefer? One that is clear is that awarding orders in such manner as it was done ended up with UK loosing at least 1000 jobs in railway rolling stock building industry. Of course You may fully deny it but this is what actual data are saying.
 
#2,419 ·
You don't seem to understand that decisions on procurement are not made solely on the number of jobs that will directly create for a particular contract, there are other considerations, increasing competition within the marketplace may be one of them for example, or they may just prefer the features of this Hitachi train over it's competitors.

How many more jobs would be created if every purchaser in the UK bought a Jaguar rather than a BMW? Probably a lot, but we don't force every buyer to do that. As for your other point that we must either buy an EU product every time or bail out the country that product comes from that is nonsense, as long as those countries have reasonably competitive products they will win a fair share of the market, no need to boycott Chilean wine and buy French every time as a special favour.
 
#2,420 ·
Don't forget that the IEP and Thameslink trains were procured in a very complex way, whereby the train builder not only has to design and build the trains, but also has to finance it and maintain the trains throughout their expected lifetime. The train operators pay a fee to the TSP (Train Service Provider) for each hour in operation. As the train builders have to provide financing for the trains themselves, joint-ventures have been formed with financial institutions (Siemens in Cross London Trains, Hitachi in Agility Trains), which means lending money.

At the time when the contracts were granted, Siemens and Hitachi had a much better credit rating (A+) than Bombardier (B+) so they could lend money cheaper. The Crossrail contract structure is much more conventional, where Bombardier simply supplies the trains and is paid in full upon acceptance by the customer.

The benefit of the Thameslink/IEP structure is that it does not cost the taxpayer a lot of money. The downside is that operators will pay much higher leasing costs compared to other trains, as this is where XLT/Agility make their money from. The AT300's which were ordered separaretly will be cheaper to operate for GWR than the IEPs will be.
 
#2,421 ·
Employment in made-to-order heavy manufacturing plants fluctuates naturally as projects come and go. Happens in regard of train builders, ship builders, aircraft builders etc. These vehicles follow a very different logic than road vehicles, which are almost always assembled as part of aggregate market estimates and dispatched to dealers, or let ready for minimal end-user customization.
 
#2,422 ·
#2,423 ·
#2,424 ·
From Railway Gazette:

http://www.railwaygazette.com/news/...-pound14m-investment-for-city-of-culture.html

Hull Paragon station to get £1·4m investment for City of Culture
09 May 2016









UK: TransPennine Express has applied for listed building consent for works which it plans to undertake as part of a £1·4m modernisation of Hull Paragon station.

The FirstGroup subsidiary said the changes would ‘transform’ the passenger experience, providing ‘modern and comfortable’ waiting facilities and toilets, a ‘more open and accessible’ booking office and new information screens. It is seeking expressions of interest in additional retail units, providing an opportunity to attract ‘new facilities and brands’ to the station

...
 
#2,426 ·
FirstGroup gets nod for London-Edinburgh open access rail services

British transport company FirstGroup on Thursday said it had obtained approval from the country's rail regulator to launch open access rail services between London and Edinburgh.

FirstGroup, which runs trains in some parts of Britain and yellow school buses in the U.S., said the 10-year track access would enable its East Coast Trains to begin operating five trains a day each way from London King's Cross to Edinburgh.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-firstgroup-railway-idUKKCN0Y30K7?il=0
 
#2,427 ·
Wolverhampton Railway Station is about to be rebuilt.

Here it stands as Wolverhampton High Level.


historywebsite.co.uk

This was demolished in the 1960s and replaced with...


railaroundbirmingham.co.uk

This is how the new build will look:


Express and Star


wolverhamptoninterchange.co.uk

The station has four through platforms, two terminal platforms, two terminal sidings, and will be joined by a sole platform for the Midland Metro (light rail).

Wolverhampton is at the heart of the UK rail network and from it you can reach almost every major city in the UK mainland bar Leeds. That is, London, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Bristol, Southampton, etc.
 
#2,429 ·
From Rail Journal:

http://www.railjournal.com/index.ph...ains-to-transpennine-express.html?channel=529

CAF to supply trains to TransPennine Express
Monday, May 23, 2016



BRITISH train operator TransPennine Express (TPE) has selected CAF, Spain, to supply and maintain a fleet of 200km/h inter-city EMUs as well as coaches to be hauled by class 68 locomotives under a total investment worth £230m

CAF will build 12 five-car Civity UK InterCity EMUs under a deal worth £120m to be funded by British rolling stock leasing company Eversholt Rail Group. The trains are scheduled to enter service on the Manchester/Liverpool – Glasgow/Edinburgh route in 2019 replacing Siemens class 350/4 177km/h EMUs

...
 
#2,431 ·

66 757 St Phillips Marsh Depot Bristol 2 May 2016


50 007 St Phillips Marsh Depot Bristol 2 May 2016


47 749 St Phillips Marsh Depot Bristol 2 May 2016


D213 St Phillips Marsh Depot Bristol 2 May 2016


66 757 & 5580 St Phillips Marsh Depot Bristol 2 May 2016


43 013 St Phillips Marsh Depot Bristol 2 May 2016


HST lineup at St Phillips Marsh Depot Bristol 2 May 2016


43 002 at St Phillips Marsh Depot Bristol 2 May 2016


66 560 Bristol Parkway 2 May 2016

More here:
https://transportsceneireland.smugmug.com/RailSceneEurope/RSE-Bristol-South-West-May/
 
#2,433 ·
Huh? Not really. They do have some inherited issues that the continental states managed to sort to a greater degree (e.g. non-UIC loading gauge, excessive use of terminus stations, low rate of electrification), but most of the network is excellent by global standards and is being improved constantly. Sharp passenger growth is a testimony to that.
 
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