Redundancies in the pipeline at Laira train depot as maintenance work moves away from Plymouth
David Cameron talks to First Great Western engineering director Andy Mellors at the Laira Maintenance Depot in Feburary 2014Redundancies will be made at Laira train depot with the number of skilled engineers set to be cut given the new trains being brought in to serve Plymouth will be maintained outside of the city.Great Western Railway (
GWR▸ ) - the new name for First Great Western - confirmed the city depot, situated along Embankment Road, will lose 60 per cent of its workload when the modern Hitachi trains are rolled out.
Hitachi will instead carry out any required heavy maintenance in-house at its London depot, while lighter servicing will carry on at Laira.
The Herald understands the 250 or so Plymouth staff members were briefed in April regarding the amount of work which the depot will lose as the former British Rail InterCity 125 trains, built in the 1970s, are taken out of service.
Staff at the century-old depot described the news as "disappointing and a shock".
One worker, who asked to remain anonymous, said: "Only 12 months prior to the announcement we were told we were heroes for going to London to work on the Dawlish line and then all of a sudden our jobs are at risk with the new trains. The figures we were given regarding the amount of trains Laira will lose will be quite devastating to skilled staff.
"It is something we realised would happen and that the vehicles would have to be replaced but it came as a shock because we thought whatever came in their place, we would still work on them," the worker added.
The Government gave GWR the go-ahead in July to purchase 29 state-of-the-art trains which will have up to 24 per cent more seats compared to the majority of the 40-year-old trains serving the route today, creating more than 1,000 additional peak-time seats into and out of Paddington every day.
Journey times will improve by only six minutes, however, with no current plans for electrification for the lines beyond Bristol.
A spokesman for GWR said it was doing all it could to minimise staff loses but explained that the new Japanese-made AT300s will require less heavy duty maintenance in the West Country.
"Around 60 per cent of work at Laira was always going to shift to Hitachi," said the spokesman. "That was always going to be part of the deal that the Government struck with Hitachi at the time.
"The addition of the brand new trains we are putting in specifically for the London to Penzance corridor will have some impact in terms of the number of skilled workers needed at the depot. At this stage, we don't have the numbers for that. We are working on a voluntary redundancy scheme because there will be fewer people needed for the newer trains as they will require less maintenance."
He said some staff will be offered the chance to relocate to other depots, with job openings expected in Penzance and Exeter.
Despite the cut backs, he insisted that "Laira will definitely remain open", with new maintenance contracts a possibility. "Laira has a significant role to play in the servicing of our new trains," he added.
While a servicing role means the depot will retain work on long-distance trains, it still stands to lose much of the major engineering it has been undertaking on the 125s.
Jim D'Avila from Unite said union members would be sent letters explaining the options open to them. He said he hoped the process could be completed without any compulsory redundancies, with skilled staff transferring to different depots or possibly retraining for non-skilled jobs.
Aides to Plymouth
MP▸ Oliver Colvile said he had written to GWR asking them about the number of expected job losses and plans to raise the issue when he meets with Hitachi representatives next month.
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