An interest in made in …. and trains got me to prick up my ears when Geoff Hoon announced this week he is going to make the UK a centre of excellence for European rail manufacturing. This sounds encouraging but on closer inspection might be exaggerated. The manufacture seems to be assembly of imported parts so a low percentage of the build. There is already a plant in the UK and this will be another so an increase in capacity and competition which might improve price / delivery and export potential or make one less viable.
It isn’t clear to me if there is a strategy that might expand assembly into a bigger operation or how many trains are needed over the next 20 years that might enable this. Many industries create supplier bases but if the parts are already being made overseas this might not be very big. Overall it’s better than nothing but whether it’s a European centre of excellence?
So what is manufacturing excellence? Take a look at this train that was made in Preston – click here