DERBY North MP Bob Laxton has described the appointment of Geoff Hoon as transport secretary in the reshuffled Cabinet as being “a breath of fresh air” for the railway industry.

Mr Laxton was speaking at the start of the Derby and Derbyshire Rail Forum’s Innovation Conference held at the Derby Conference Centre.

The MP told more than 100 delegates that Mr Hoon’s father had worked on the railway so the new Secretary of State – who replaced Ruth Kelly – was “imbued with that history.”

He added: “He is just a few weeks into the job and relishing it. He is a breath of fresh air for the rail industry.”

Earlier the MP spoke of how the Forum had been set up to promote the skills of people working in the rail industry in what was very much a railway city.

Mr Laxton, a former chairman of the Forum, said: “There were real concerns about the railway in Derby in the run up to privatisation.

“We had the Railway Technical Centre as a centre of innovation but there were concerns about whether companies would remain in Derby or be broken up. There were worries that we might become a railway backwater.

“But history tells it all. The railway industry here in Derby is as strong as ever. Derby is still a railway centre.”

He added that the railways had always been a cornerstone of the transport system in the UK and there would always be a demand for railways.

Speaking of the economic problems facing the country he said: “Not the least of this is the on/off, on/off nature of rail orders. This has always been a problem.”

But he said that with major new rail projects coming on stream there would still be demand for train building – Derby is now the only UK location for this – and the city had the skills and technologies needed.”

Colin Walton, chairman and chief country representative, UK & Ireland of the Bombardier Transportation Group, and chairman of the Forum, welcomed guests to the conference and said he hoped that with all sorts of rail projects such as the Thameslink expansion programme and Crossrail, these would help a lot of jobs to be created.

With a reference to the number of train builders now operating outside the UK, he added: “We would like to see the work done in the UK and we are still pushing for that.”

Speakers during the conference included Richard Eccles, head of route planning for Network Rail, who talked about plans to tackle a future programme of electrifying lines and Tim Shoveller, managing director of East Midlands Trains which has bases in Derby and Nottingham.

He spoke about his company’s efforts to gain excellence from staff and of the huge investment going into train refurbishment and station improvements.

Richard Adams, managing director of Balfour Beatty Rail Projects, spoke of innovations needed in the supply side of the rail industry to speed up engineering possessions and ease passenger disruption.

Heidi Mottram, managing director of Northern Rail, the UK’s biggest train franchise, talked about her company’s involvement with the current £24 million trial to use tram trains on lines to Huddersfield via Barnsley from Sheffield and also on the Sheffield Supertram system.

Full reports from the conference will appear in the December edition of Railnews

- Event Photographer Natasha Cheek can be contacted on n8asha@hotmail.com