Litchurch Lane Works' future in doubt as Siemens takes Thameslink bid

CIE

This story appeared in the Irish Times today at time of writing this post.

Judgement Day

Well it's been a long time coming but there will still be at least one British company still building locomotives and rolling stock http://www.alankeef.co.uk/
they supplied the C&L at Dromod, Moyasta, Waterford & Suir Valley and the new Lartigue!

Cookie_Monster

don't forget the newest manufacturer
http://www.a1steam.com/

dowlingm

Trains are a bit of an international thing now though, not unlike planes. They are built with shells from one country, powerpacks from another, seats from a third and assembled in a fourth. Maybe UK entrepreneurs should be looking at creating specialist operations to take on the likes of MTU in the engine sphere, or brakes or hybrid powertrains or something else - why contribute to a limited run contract when with the right component you could be manufacturing for years onto different train platforms?

CIE

Trains are a bit of an international thing now though

Not in France and Germany, if what was stated in the IT is true.

And for the record, trains used to be "a bit of an international thing" when the only country building them was England. Most countries' first steam locomotives were exported from there.

Victor

CIE wrote: »

Not in France and Germany, if what was stated in the IT is true.

Meh, not sure.

With the Irish Rail 22000 class, the bodyshells are Korean, the windows French, the engines German and the assembly is Japanese.

The reality is we live in a world economy, we make some things that we are good at and export them. Other people make things they are good at and export them.

If we go down the road of economic nationalism, you can kiss goodbye to two-thirds of the Irish economy.

CIE

Victor wrote: »

Meh, not sure.

With the Irish Rail 22000 class, the bodyshells are Korean, the windows French, the engines German and the assembly is Japanese.

The reality is we live in a world economy, we make some things that we are good at and export them. Other people make things they are good at and export them.

If we go down the road of economic nationalism, you can kiss goodbye to two-thirds of the Irish economy.

With all due respect, did you read what I was referring to? From John Forkin of Manufacturing Derby:

“In France, 100 per cent of trains are built in France, in Germany 90 per cent are built in Germany – in the UK it will soon be zero per cent and every train, tram and tube in the future will need to be imported.”

Therefore France and Germany seem to be just fine with their "economic nationalism", especially when their economies (especially Germany's) are pummeling Ireland's.

No, we do not live in a "world economy". The importers are slaves to the exporters. That's called colonialism. But really, that's probably fodder for a different forum on here...

etchyed

The French government openly pressurises its national rail company SNCF to only buy trains from Alstom. You need only look at the fuss caused when Eurostar decided to buy trains from Germany.

This ecomomic protectionism is the kind of thing we were told would not be accepted by the EU if Ireland had awarded motorway-building contracts to Irish companies only.

Britain, unlike France, however, has made its name as an open economy, hence so many of its employers being foreign-owned (the Canadian Bombardier being a case in point) and the existence of so many major international banking operations in the City of London. Despite all their rhetoric about British jobs, it would probably be anathema for a Conservative government to award a contract to an unfavourable bid just because it was British.

Quite apart from the fact that Ireland doesn't hold as much sway in the EU and must therefore follow its free market rules more rigidly than the major powers, our reputation for being an open market (similar to Britain's) would probably have suffered if we hadn't let some of our roads be Portugese-built.

Terrontress

Does the beneath count as a train?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Rail_Class_139

A railbus instead perhaps.

Run_to_da_hills

More about it here.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2011332/Bombardier-jobs-Britains-train-making-company-axes-1-400.html