MILLIONS of pounds worth of new business will safeguard jobs into the millennium at Eastleigh's railway works.

More than a month ago the Daily Echo exclusively revealed that new maintenance orders, worth about £15 million, were in the pipeline at Alstom Train Services.

Now the company has confirmed that contracts have been signed. The new workload, which will involve overhauling bogies - wheeled undercarriages - for high-speed trains and refurbishing carriages will run into 2001.

In December the engineering giant dropped a jobs bombshell by announcing that nearly a third of the 970-strong workforce would have to go in a move aimed at securing the future of a plant which in its heyday employed 6,000.

The redundancy programme ended in March and the depot now has a workforce of just under 700.

Management has been working at full steam to gather new orders and now the Campbell Road works, which is one of the town's biggest employers, is on the tracks for a bright future.

The town has built its economic foundations on the rail maintenance plant. And this latest news has been welcomed by civic and union chiefs.

It also completes a double dose of good economic news for the town. Earlier this week a survey revealed that more people were shopping in the town centre than a year ago and the number of empty shops had been halved.

Eastleigh Council's economic development manager Peter Grant said: "We are delighted that Alstom have secured this significant new order which can only reinforce the stability of the local workforce."

The news was also welcomed by the Rail, Maritime and Transport Union, which represents a large proportion of the workers at the maintenance depot.

Divisional organiser Phil Bialyk said: "Eastleigh works has a lot of skills to offer and the work is of the best possible quality. It is good for the community and it is important for the south of England that this railway site is maintained."

Converted for the new archive on 25 January 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.