(Sheffield, Heeley) (Lab): The
Minister will have seen reports this week that 3,000 jobs are at
risk at Alstom rail factory in Derby. The Government told us that
they were doing everything in their power to prevent those job
losses, but they appear to be failing. It gets worse: this
morning, I received correspondence from Hitachi Rail, warning
that despite years of representation to Ministers, no solution
has been found that will keep its order books full and safeguard
the future of 700 staff at its factory in Newton Aycliffe. The
Secretary of State has it in his power to vary contracts and
commission the necessary orders. When will he do that and protect
those jobs?
The Minister of State, Department for Transport (): The Secretary of State has led for the Department
on the response to Hitachi and Alstom, and their understandable
concerns about orders. As I have said, we have a challenge, in
that while fleet can last from 35 to 40 years, the average age of
our fleet is under 17 years. We have modernised 8,000 out of our
15,500 carriages, and as a result there is a lag with the order
book. We are doing everything we can to work with all four train
manufacturers to bring more tenders through. Those will be for
the Transpennine Express,
Northern, Southeastern and, as the Secretary of State mentioned,
Chiltern Railways. The work to find a resolution is done in
partnership between train manufacturers, the Secretary of State
and the Department, and we hope to find that resolution.
