TWO long-serving employees at the Knorr-Bremse Rail Systems facility in Melksham were presented with awards during a visit by the firm’s chairman.

Klaus Deller, Chairman of the Knorr-Bremse Executive Board, with responsibility for the Rail Vehicle Systems Division, thanked Mike Hopper and June Little who were both retiring on the day of his visit. Mike has worked for the company for 45 years and June for 31 years.

Mr Deller, spent the day touring the Melksham headquarters facility recently to see for himself the success being enjoyed by the UK operation. During his visit, Mr Deller, who is based at the Knorr-Bremse Group headquarters in Munich, met with many of the 400 plus employees based there. The employees’ roles range from research and development, design and engineering, customer support and manufacturing to overhaul and project management.

He said: “It was great to visit the Knorr-Bremse Melksham site and to see the good work that is going on there. Most importantly, though, it provided an opportunity for me to meet and chat with a wide range of employees who are contributing so much to the site’s success story.”

Paul Goodhand, Managing Director of Knorr-Bremse Rail UK added: “It was a great honour to have Mr Deller visiting us here in the UK, recognising and taking an interest in our business activities. People here really appreciate our Chairman taking time out to come and see for himself what we’re involved in here at Melksham and in the UK and global rail industry.”

Knorr-Bremse Rail UK, part of the global Knorr-Bremse Group, now has six rail facilities around the UK. The company is involved in developing new innovative products and manufacturing them and supplies and supports the entire Knorr-Bremse Rail Systems portfolio of Connected Systems. Under its RailServices brand, Knorr-Bremse Rail UK also provides specialist overhaul, maintenance and modernisation services for train builders and operators.

The company has seen huge growth in the last few years winning major contracts including equipping the new Hitachi high speed trains with its braking system and also for building and installing the platform screen door system for the prestigious Crossrail (Elizabeth line) project in London.

Knorr-Bremse Rail UK also recently celebrated the production of its 50,000th EP2002 Distributed Brake Control valve at the Melksham facility. The revolutionary valve was designed at the Melksham site and is exported around the world to deliver precise brake control on metro trains.

In March this year, Junior Transport Minister Paul Maynard MP, commenting on EP2002 said: “Companies like Knorr-Bremse are leading the way in bringing new thinking to the industry and as a result are also exporting British designed and built systems around the world.”