UNION bosses have given a cautious welcome to news that rail-related employment might continue after train renovation company Alstom pulls out of Eastleigh.

As reported by the Daily Echo, regeneration specialist St Modwen, which owns the 46-acre site in Campbell Road, said it has already received calls from businesses keen to make use of mothballed rail facilities.

Debt-laden French engineering group Alstom is closing the works at the end of this year, with the loss of 550 jobs. Its five-year lease expires in December 2007.

Jennie Formy, regional organiser for the TGWU, which has a strong membership at the Alstom works, said any rail-related employment would be welcome for redundant staff, although the wait might be too long for some.

She said: "If anything comes out of this, it would be good news. We just hope that any new jobs will be sustainable ones."

St Modwen is keen to attract rent-paying tenants from 2008, but its prime objective is to secure the regeneration of the whole site, as well as surrounding pockets of land owned by various companies, which would create hundreds of jobs.

The property developer stressed the key to that happening is the southern Eastleigh bypass, which has yet to go before planners but would provide vital site access.

St Modwen snapped up the site, along with 18 others across the country, in a £111m buy-and-lease-back deal with Alstom three years ago.