NEW rail jobs may be created at the former York Carriageworks site after it emerged that Network Rail wants to expand its maintenance operation there.

The company is planning to create a ‘fan’ of new tracks into its five-acre site off Holgate Road, so that more and larger vehicles can be shunted in.

About 150 employees currently carry out annual maintenance on more than 400 of Network Rail’s ‘seasonal’ vehicles.

These include ‘rail head treatment trains’ used to remove the build-up of leaves from the rails in autumn.

A spokeswoman said that once the development was completed, the site intended to bid for work from third parties as well as increasing the work completed for Network Rail.

She could not comment on numbers of any job increases as yet, but said: “Yes, we would expect them to increase if more work is secured.”

She said:”The operation at this site is constrained by the way that the vehicles enter and leave the maintenance shed.

“At the moment they are loaded onto a “traverser” which is a sideways moving platform which carries the vehicles across the tracks.

“The expansion plans will see a new “fan” of track installed which will allow more and larger vehicles to be maintained on site.”

She said Network Rail was aware how close the site was to its neighbours and the development was planned for the side furthest away from houses.

“There are no plans for any new buildings at the moment,” she added.

“We will have to apply for consent to work on the five acre site. We have not applied for this yet, as we are still in the early stages of this.”

The carriageworks, which employed more than 3,000 workers in the 1950s, closed down in 1996 with the loss of 750 jobs after more than a century of train building on the site.

York Press:

American rail giant Thrall Europa then took over part of the site to build freight wagons but that operation closed down in 2002, with the loss of 260 jobs, with Network taking over the site for vehicle maintenance.

News of Network Rail’s planned expansion comes after Freightliner confirmed it had closed its maintenance facility on the York Central site, just across the railway tracks from the Network Rail complex, earlier this year with the loss of jobs.

Freightliner said its depot was initially leased in January 2011 under a three-year contract which, due to the success of the operation, was extended.

“The work has now transferred to Freightliner’s brand new facility located at Manchester Guide Bridge which opened in January this year.”

When the Freightliner depot opened in the former Jarvis shed in 2011, it brought 20 new jobs with it.

York Central developers said then that Freightliner’s arrival would not prejudice their long-term hopes of bringing thousands of new jobs and homes.