Bombardier ‘confident’ it will find orders to sustain Derby site

Listen to this article

The president of Bombardier Transportation, André Navarri, has said he is confident the company will obtain the orders needed to secure the future of its site in Derby.

Speaking at the international rail trade fair InnoTrans, Navarri said “It’s clear that we need additional orders and so that is the reason why we are in discussions with DfT.

“It’s clear we need more orders to maintain Derby at a reasonable level, so we’re confident that this conversation will help us find some opportunities.”

Earlier this year, 1,600 staff members held onto their jobs at Bombardier’s Derby factory after being told that the site would remain open – at least in the short term.

Bombardier’s order backlog topped $31.9 billion at the end of 2011 and company bosses said they were confident growth would continue after experiencing a “revival” in the North American light right market.

Orders across North America in the last couple of years have included delivery of 300 new New York City metro cars, 410 BART metro cars and 468 new cars for the Montreal metro network.

Raymond Bachant, president of Bombardier North America, said: “We believe the US intercity market also looks promising. This sector will grow by 35 per cent over the 2013-15 timeline. As new orders come from Amtrak for a replacement of single-level car and long-distance bi-modal coaches.

“We strongly believe in the future of rail and more so in the United States.”

Bombardier is also planning further investment in North America, including a 20 million euro expansion of its assembly and test center in Plattsburgh.

Previous article
Next article

3 COMMENTS

  1. Yes there are plenty of small add-on orders that BOMBARDIER at Derby can do:
    1. 30 x 378 Non driving motors for the North London Line, plus 2 extra five car sets to boost both the NLL and Watford DC Line.
    2. 8 centre cars for LOROL’s 172s as a stopgap to electrification when 10 refurbised 313s could return to London.
    3. 15 further 5-car 377 units for Southern’s London area suburban services. These would permit the unsuitable 313s (no loos) to transfer away from Southern’s Coastway services where the lack of lavatories is inconveniencing (no pun intended) older passengers travelling to Eastbourne, Bognor or Worthing.
    4. 15 4-car 379s for West Anglia, allowing tranfer for refurbishment older 317 units for the North West.
    And that is just a short list. And you could add:
    5. 8 x 4-car S4s for operating from Watford Jct / Met to Amersham / Chesham to develop a local Colne Valley network in the Herts / Bucks sections of the Metropolitan Line.
    6. 38 trains of Tube stock for the Bakerloo Line, possibly increased to 52 units if common sense were to prevail, and the line were extended to New Cross, Lewisham Catford and Hayes (Taking over the Hayes Branch from South Eastern)
    7. Some of the re-manufacturing contracts for York built stock from the 1980s now being planned.
    8. They could even get the Crossrail contract.
    Lots of work, just the Government and TOCs need to get going on this one!

    • Agreed but in years to come, there is going to be additional competition from the new Hitachi factory at Newton Aycliffe, with it’s modern production line. Therefore, if no sustainable orders are forthcoming and as Derby do not build trains for export, then there is a real danger that, sadly, the factory will close.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Latest Rail News

ORR review leads to 50% reduction in maximum fees for ticket refunds

New rules will mean that from 2 April the maximum fee that train operators and ticket retailers can charge...

More like this...