Please make our city home of the railways

WE have learnt that Derby has been chosen as one of the six shortlisted candidate locations for the headquarters of the new Great British Railways.

This small group of shortlisted locations will be entered into a non-binding public vote to decide the eventual winner.

With Derby in that number, then, once the election process is made known, it will be down to the people of Derby, Derbyshire, and the wider East Midlands to back Derby.

What will it mean for Derby to be chosen? I don’t think anyone can truly answer that question accurately. I believe that there will be rail-related jobs transferred from London, these will come from departmental civil servants and rail businesses.

Any UK and world-wide railrelated business that does not have a presence in, or near, Derby will want to establish an office here to be ‘in the know’ of what the thinking is within the GBR at any given time.

What this could mean is that, because not everyone being asked to relocate to Derby will want to come, some roles will have to be filled by suitable people living locally to Derby, or living within a reasonable commuting distance.

These people would be joining the over 11,000 highly skilled rail employees already based in the Derby area and around 45,000 rail jobs across the East Midlands – the sector is of major significance to communities across our region.

So there will be jobs created, and as stated above, many transferred to Derby, and what could be many new jobs for locals.

For those being transferred to Derby, they are going to need housing, this could be in the city itself, or perhaps places with a rail station – Duffield; Spondon; Willington or Tutbury, or even further like Belper; Long Eaton; Burton or Uttoxeter.

All of the businesses setting up a presence in and around Derby will want suitable office space. Logical thinking would place these offices around the present cluster of rail related activity around the rail station, Wilmorton, Pride Park areas, but being convenient to the new GBR head office will be high on the list of suitable requirements.

So, upon Derby being selected as the location for the UK’s centre for the new look ‘British Railways’ then it will mean jobs, well paid jobs; the housing market will really leap into life, as will the business premises market.

All of this bringing more money into the city of Derby and the southern half of the county. Locating GBR’s HQ in Derby would bring renewed pride, purpose and confidence to the region, and to the rail sector.

As for the voting process, Derby City Council will be making it known just what the procedure is for the next stage of the process. Please, get involved, when asked, vote Derby – the new home of Great British Railways.

David Trigg, by email