Alstom

Alstom Transport is a French-headquartered multinational rail-traction manufacturer and one of the dominant forces in global railway rolling stock, traceable in its British operations to the merger of GEC Traction of the United Kingdom and Alsthom of France into GEC-Alsthom in 1989, and subsequently to the Alstom rebrand of 1998. In Britain Alstom has inherited through a succession of mergers and acquisitions much of the country's legacy rail manufacturing capacity, operating from the former Litchurch Lane Carriage Works at Derby and at various other sites across the country for maintenance and overhaul work.

The firm's most celebrated contribution to British railways is the Class 390 Pendolino tilting train for the West Coast Main Line, introduced from 2002 and transforming journey times between London Euston and Manchester, Birmingham, Liverpool, and Glasgow. The Pendolino uses active tilt technology to allow higher speeds on the WCML's curved alignment than would otherwise be achievable, and the fleet's commercial success demonstrated that tilting-train technology could be successfully applied to one of the world's busiest mixed-traffic main lines.

Alstom has also supplied the Coradia family of diesel and electric multiple units to British operators, including the Coradia iLint hydrogen-powered train that represents the firm's push into zero-emission traction, and from 2024 Alstom holds the Class 207 and associated contracts that continue its position as the leading manufacturer of new rolling stock for the British market. The acquisition of Bombardier Transportation's rail division in 2021 gave Alstom ownership of Derby Litchurch Lane, making it the custodian of Britain's longest-established continuous railway manufacturing site.

The firm was founded in its modern form in 1928 as a French electrical engineering company, diversifying into rail traction in the post-war period and growing through successive mergers to become one of the three or four dominant global rail manufacturers alongside Siemens, Hitachi, and CRRC. Its British operations represent both the international consolidation of the rail industry and a continuity with the Victorian British locomotive-building tradition that established Litchurch Lane as a centre of railway engineering excellence.