Alstom, a global leader in smart and sustainable mobility, welcomed UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham to its Litchurch Lane Works factory in Derby, where he met apprentices and graduates and announced new technical education pathways aimed at strengthening the country’s future engineering workforce. During the visit, the Prime Minister met around 100 current and former apprentices and graduates from Alstom and its supply chain partners, while also seeing specialist training delivered to engineers and technicians through Alstom’s National Training Academy. The academy currently supports a cohort of 120 trainee apprentices and graduates.
The visit highlighted the career journeys of young professionals such as Derby-born Chloe Turnbull, who joined Alstom as an apprentice after working in a pharmacy. She is now a Process Engineer overseeing the manufacture of ten Class 345 Aventra trains for London’s Elizabeth line. Yasha Sidiqui, who was named Graduate of the Year at the 2025 RailStaff Awards, is now a Product Cost Engineer working on design-stage initiatives to improve the whole-life value of trains.
Rob Whyte, Managing Director UK at Alstom, said the company was pleased to showcase the future of British train manufacturing in Derby, which is set to become home to Great British Railways. He highlighted rail’s potential to support the reindustrialisation of the UK through investment, skills development, employment and supply chain opportunities.
Alstom spent more than £720 million with nearly 1,300 British businesses during the past year, supporting close to 11,000 jobs across its supply chain. The company directly employs nearly 4,900 people across 36 UK sites and contributes close to £1 billion to the UK economy. Its activities also generated £191.5 million in social value, while UK suppliers exported approximately £100 million of products and services to Alstom entities in 37 countries.
The company is investing £35 million in Adessia, its next-generation train platform designed and engineered in Derby. The initiative builds on Alstom’s longstanding UK manufacturing capabilities and is intended to support the future requirements of Great British Railways.
Alstom’s Derby facility is its largest global site and the UK’s only train factory capable of designing, engineering, building and testing trains for domestic and international markets. Between 2017 and 2024, the site delivered more than 2,660 Aventra carriages to UK operators. It is currently producing ten additional trains for the Elizabeth line and refurbishing CrossCountry’s Voyager fleet under a £60 million contract.
The factory has also become Alstom’s global Centre of Excellence for the Adessia platform, following a three-year research programme. The company’s contribution to British rail manufacturing was further demonstrated in 2024, when Derby completed the export of the final monorail train under a £2.3 billion UK Export Finance-backed order for Cairo.
