Goldfish62
Established Member
- Joined
- 14 Feb 2010
- Messages
- 10,193
I wonder if people who demand that UK trains are 100% made in the UK using 100% sourced components realise that this would be very much exception in the developed world.Do people ask how much of the car/ship/aircraft they are using is British-sourced? Why are trains any different?
BR always bought in diesel and electric packages, usually made in the UK under licence (eg Sulzer and Maybach) .
Remember the "German" diesel power packs on 80x come from a Roll-Royce factory, so what's British any more?
The 80x production had a high number of UK components, but they were mostly of the minor or UK-specific type - windscreen wipers, AWS/TPWS packages etc.
All manufacturers use components from all over the place, using competitive supply chains.
The purchasers are in any case private sector companies (Roscos, banks), who take the long-term risk, and not public sector bodies like some TOCs are.
The increasing software content of trains (TMS, ETCS etc) will also be internationally-sourced, regardless of where the train is assembled.
DB for example takes trains at least built in part in Spain, Poland and France, and variously including components manufactured in the UK.
People also hark back to the days of BR building its own trains. In what developed country does the main rail operator build its own trains?