The death of British train building?

Reports on the death of British train building are premature says Andy Milne.

How could we be so stupid as to lose the last train building plant in Britain with its extended family of engineers, designers, and fitters and all their attendant skills?

That is the question upper most in the minds of the British public after the Secretary of State announced the contract for the new Thameslink fleet would go to Siemens and the trains to be built in Germany. Strong public support for Litchurch Lane has surprised government officials.

The message is a simple one: Stop the deal and back the British bid.

Britain’s bid, placed by Bombardier Transportation, would have seen the new fleet built at Litchurch Lane in Derby, Britain’s last surviving train building facility.

The plant needs more work and even with this order would be hard pushed to keep all its staff on. The abject surrender of British train building to foreign interests goes right to the heart of what is wrong with modern Britain and its political class.

This is proving a difficult summer for the government. The war in Afghanistan goes badly. Soldiers, we learn, are being told not to shoot dead terrorists seen placing road side bombs, but instead to try and apprehend them.

Public disillusion

At home the economy continues to falter as the government fails to provide industry stimulation by reducing taxes and cutting unproductive public spending. In fact government spending has gone up under this administration.

Bailing out the collapsing Euro has only fuelled public disillusion with the European Union. Worst of all, the new administration is now fatally involved in the Murdoch-media scandal. Apoplectic promises to reform the press cut little ice with a public that remembers the MPs expenses scandal, broken by a free press – the concomitant of a free society.

Already it is all but impossible to criticise some religions, sexual orientation or European unity.

The political class is seen as self serving and expedient. Whilst this may be unfair, particularly in relation to the Hammond-Baker, British-built two-car team, it is nowhere better demonstrated historically than in the railway industry.

A latter day victim

British train building is a latter day victim of the failure of successive governments to support railways. Stop-start spending bursts meant it was almost impossible to sustain a domestic rail vehicle market.

By contrast in France and Germany sustained investment in new railways and new rolling stock created a healthy and by now globally established train building industry. Moreover 95 percent of trains used in Germany, Italy and France are built domestically.

These governments know how to look after their own people.

Despite this in a bizarre twist of fate, Britain now has one of the fastest growing rail industries in Europe. A small crowded island, elongated and clogged with ill conceived motorways, Britian needs more railways and more trains.

The danger, which the British have woken up to rather late in the day, is that being dependent on foreign trains puts them at a disadvantage. To understand a market you need to be involved in it yourself.

The job surely of a democratic government is to advance the interests of those who elect it. Historically the over riding consideration of successive governments when shamed into actually investing in rail is how best to do it cheaply.

This applied to East Coast Main Line electrification, the building of High Speed One and even Crossrail. The Gordon Brown administration constantly asked for cost reduction.

The upshot is delay. Thameslink itself was originally named Thameslink 2000 back in the nineties. The title tripped neatly off the tongue implying the work would be done by then.

Unanimity of support

Make no mistake, failure to save British train building will rebound on the government. The cause of Litchurch Lane has already achieved a unanimity of support that would be the envy of any social engineer.

Lord Sugar writes, ‘London train order gone to Germany? UK factory loses tender and announces 1,500 people will be laid off. Makes no sense!’ Hugh Grant agrees, ‘It’s so awful to be paying our tax pounds to a German company rather than to keep our own guys in work at Bombardier.’

The general secretary of the RMT is of like mind. ‘It’s a scandal that the Government are colluding with the European Union in a policy of industrial vandalism that would wipe out train building in the nation that gave the railways to the world,’ says Bob Crow.

What can the Secretary of State do? Siemens makes excellent trains, no quibble there, and doesn’t it have a better credit rating? Can we stomach further delay? Calling in the contract might lead to legal action by Siemens. Hardly if the company wants to bid in future for British rolling stock orders.

An important order

Cancelling the contract and retendering it will mean another year’s delay. Some argue we’ve waited long enough for Thameslink, what’s another year? Need the delay be quite so long? Staff at Litchurch Lane would certainly be happy to ramp up speed of delivery.

The credit rating canard is patently absurd. The Euro could collapse any time this summer. Can we really take the risk of placing such an important order in such a troubled currency zone?

The reality is Her Majesty’s government is perfectly capable of insisting that British trains be built in Britain, bought and paid for in pounds sterling. This is absolutely in accordance with EU aspiration and policy. Remember 95 per cent of trains used in Germany, France and Italy are built at home.

All we ask is the same basic human right, not even as high a percentage. This is an important order which needs to be built here. Switch it back and everyone’s a winner from Downing Street to Derby.

The European Union, among its laudable ideals, was set up to protect ordinary men and women from war, famine, mass unemployment and oppression. That’s the basis of the Treaty of Rome and the rather more detailed Lisbon Treaty.

The troubled chancelleries of Europe can only applaud a European transport minister for encouraging a French Canadian company, headquartered in Berlin, Germany, to build trains in a heavily working class area of northern England.

Switching to Derby will demonstrate real leadership and a more pertinent espousal of the philosophical imperatives of the European Union.