Alexander Dennis 400 jobs at risk in Falkirk

[TimBrown]

News just in that Alexander Dennis are contemplating moving all bus manufacturing to England with possible closure of Falkirk plant, as per link to BBC news item below;

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c39x8l8dvmpo

[DD12]

Thanks Tim for the link -- a much better article than the one on Route One !

I wonder how durable Chinese built buses will be, - and how their total-life costs will compare (?)

[DD12]

... and how good will their service support be later in the vehicles life ?

[TimBrown]

... and how good will their service support be later in the vehicles life ?

Only time will tell, particularly with all the disruption and the trade wars going on around the world at present! However, the Chinese are well ahead of the game with over half a million battery electric buses in service, some reports reckon over 600,000, so they must be doing something right. What is this 5 minute flash charge that BYD are introducing?

[AdamH]

I doubt that anyone who has had dealing with ADL in the last couple or three years will be that surprised. I was at their (then) new Larbert factory in late 2023 to see them building new buses we had on order at the time, however I didn't see any of this because they were outside on strike at the time.

Once we did get the buses delivered, build quality was pretty terrible and even now we typically have 3 or 4 away at various ADL sites at any given time to have warranty work carried out. We did have a further order for 25 single decks, but that was cancelled months ago in favor of Chinese built buses.

All seems like a repeat of the 1970s with British Leyland. Workers refusing to work and when they do they produce garbage. I'm sure everyone is blaming everyone else, but the bottom line is the customer isn't going to put up with it and will go elsewhere.

[JustinTyme]

Moreover, the build quality of Yutongs is excellent. Nottingham City Transport use their Yutong single decks on full duties (0500-2400) without recharging during the day,
.

[TimBrown]

Alexander Dennis to keep Scottish sites open after £4 million furlough pledge for 26 weeks by Scottish Government as per link below to comprehensive BBC article;

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cr4qn49zr41o