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7/7 Tube carriages repaired in ... Budapest
Dick Murray, Transport Editor12.12.07
A Tube train wrecked in the 7/7 London bombings is being rebuilt in Hungary because there are no facilities to carry out the work in Britain.
The six-carriage Hammersmith & City line train was extensively damaged when a device exploded on a train it was passing in a tunnel close to Edgware Road station.
Six people died in the bombing, one of four attacks on rush-hour trains and a No 30 bus in July 2005 that killed 52.
Four carriages are at the Bombardier trainbuilder works in Budapest. The other two, which suffered minor damage, are being worked on in Britain before they are dispatched to the Hungarian-capital for completion. The repairs will cost about £9 million and should be completed in time for the train to go back into service in May.
A London Underground spokesman said: "Construction is taking place overseas as the manufacturing techniques required for these carriages are no longer available in the UK. The carriages were due to be delivered at the end of this year but there has been a delay while ensuring that they meet the high standards required by LU."
He added: "None of the Tube carriages in which the bombs exploded will be used again in passenger service. They have been scrapped and disposed of securely. Other carriages and parts will be brought back into use."
The train was built in the Seventies in the Midlands but since then British train manufacturing has all but vanished along with the equipment for rebuilding 30-year-old stock. Bombardier, which was a member of Metronet, the Tube maintenance giant which went bust in the summer, has facilities across the world.
An industry source said: "They will be virtually new carriages. In an ideal world this train would also have been scrapped but they don't make them like this any more and we desperately need the stock back. We cancel on average six trains a day on the Circle and Hammersmith & City lines and need every train possible."
Roger Ford of Modern Railways magazine said it made sense to have the train rebuilt in Hungary, adding: "Train design has moved on since the Seventies and we don't have those sort of facilities."
Metronet is in administration and its responsibilities are due to be taken over by Transport for London next month.
Reader views (7)
I was going to write exactly the same thing as David Nigel. This is what 30 years of Tory and Labour have done to this country, we are all now reduced to working in the service industries and do not produce anything of note or worth.
As for T Beckham, Kent, what planet are you on? What are you on about? Metal has memory. If that was the case metal would have a memory from the beginning of the universe and the big bang and as far as I can remember we haven't attracted another one of those yet.
- Dardellion Montblanc, London, UK
Once a leading industrial nation, we are now merely consumers.Both sad and tragic for future generations that will rely on resources not subject to British standards and regulations. There are few British companies providing apprenticeships,passing on experience and training.
Network Rail is an excellent example,providing young people with opportunities for a secure future,and ensuring that important skills are not lost but passed on.
- Maureen Kavanagh, Basildon Essex
As a 7/7 survivor myself, I would like to see a memorial plaque in each carriage to prevent the rumour mill from churning out an urban legend for future generations. Future blogs will ask did you travel in the doomed carriages from the 7/7 bombings? Would you even know? The next thing will be Channel 4 doing a ghost hunt on the carriages to "see" the ghosts of the dead! As it is their invention of having the trains back in service why publicise the fact - send them for repair and put them onto the line without the public media shambles especially as Bombardier have no intentions of doing anything about putting the energies right. AS my Nanna said "it will end in tears."
- Beverli Rhodes, Maidstone Kent
How low the double act of Maggie and Tony have bought this nation by selling off the family silver.
We can no longer do even a repair an underground car, let alone make a new one.
- Gerry, Chatham Kent UK
Is this not another nail in the coffin of the industry of this country. We can invent, but cannot build anything anymore.
- Dene Wood, Grays, Essex,
A sad day for British industry, we were once the finest in the world in building trains and their carriages.
- David Nigel Braham, Milan Italy
Metal has memory and as such "like will attract like" the energies of the bomb and the event that caused the damage will remain in the train - as such I do pray that the same energy will not attract another bomber. The very least that Bombardier should do is allow the train carriages to be blessed so that they are put back into service with a positive note and remove the negative energies of the past event.
- T Beckham, Kent
