Green Signals was exclusively invited to visit Alstom’s Derby Litchurch Lane train building and maintenance works to have a look around in the wake of the news earlier in the year that a follow-on order would be made for Elizabeth Line trains – securing the future the site.
Richard speaks to a process manufacturing engineer who started as an apprentice, and to Alstom’s Communications Director about the Railway 200 The Greatest Gathering event that will be taking place at the site in 2025.
Principally, he speaks to Nick Crossfield, Managing Director for UK & Ireland for Alstom about prospects for the future and the outlook for the rolling stock market in the UK.
In this video:
00:00 Intro
02:48 Interview with Chloe Turnbull, Process Manufacturing Engineer, Alstom
06:08 South Western Railway Class 701 Arterio on Derby Litchurch Lane test track
07:22 Interview with Nick Crossfield, Managing Director UK& Ireland, Alstom
08:27 What did the news of an Elizabeth Line order do for Derby?
11:32 Is Derby being a political topic helpful?
13:06 Can we do anything about feast and famine in the rolling stock market?
15:20 Is boom and bust a British problem?
17:05 Is there potentially too much train building capacity in the UK?
19:23 Why does train procurement take so long in the UK?
25:19 Does DfT involvement have an impact?
27:45 The future of Derby Litchurch Lane
37:50 Does Labour’s change of approach cause concern?
41:23 Has Derby downsizing too much?
45:08 Nick Crossfield’s memories of Alstom
51:11 Plans for The Greatest Gathering – Ben Goodwin interview
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Credits:
Presenters – Nigel Harris (@railnigel on X) & Richard Bowker CBE (@SRichardBowker). General Manager: Stef Foster (@stefatrail)
11 Comments
Another coup for Green Signals!
This was a thoroughly absorbing interview, which gave a valuable insight into so many things – one item being that I now have a much better understanding of the procurement process for new rolling stock!
Congratulations to all of you for putting together such a brilliant piece, and to Nick for his clear, concise answers, delivered in a very measured and thoughtful way. All we need now is the planners and administrators to break the cycle of 'boom and bust' and to deliver a more secure mid to long term planning strategy which will benefit everyone!
Very interesting interview
That was a great interview. Very interesting and informative. They’ll have a job finding a replacement for Nick Crossfield. What a top bloke.
Great interview, wishing the full team at Litchurch Lane every success.
Hi from Glasgow Thanks for the video 📹
Derby Works was originally part of an integrated railway, where tracks, trains and engineering were co-ordinated. Maybe that idea had some merit?!
That was a great interview. Very interesting and informative. Thank you
Great interview as always. The Adessia platform had better offer level boarding or it shouldn’t be considered by operators. The fact that Alstom hasn’t been exporting from Derby shows how reliant they had been on U.K. orders, not a good strategy, Stadler seems to export worldwide that should be a lesson to all U.K. rail manufacturers. Another great interview by Green signals!
I'd love to know some of those specific change requests, because he's obviously stopping himself going into more detail.
Another great interview. Any further information on the hydrogen powered Aventra's they were proposing to build ?
Derby works a shadow of it's former self, Crewe the same, Swindon a bleedin shopping centre.
Why oh why we insist on importing when we had the skills and facilities here for many industries.
Who pays for all those folks to be redundant, Welsh steel just gone, plus a very strong possibility that Stellantis group will close Luton and Ellesmere port Vauxhall factories.
I wonder what the workforce of Red Robbos day think about their actions back in the day now.
We need indigenous manufacturing of rail, steel, ships, aircraft, can't see the red team boosting industry with very generous workers rights, which will kill investment.