BCIMO goes into administration

Black Country Innovative Manufacturing Organisation (BCIMO), the operators of Dudley’s Very Light Rail Innovation Centre, have gone into administration it has been confirmed. A not for profit organisation, the appointed administrators, RSM UK, said that the company had been hit by a lack of anticipated funding and rising costs leading to cash flow challenges.

Despite going into administration, the Very Light Rail Innovation Centre remains open and is still trading although the administrators confirmed that there had already been a small number of redundancies.

RSM UK are exploring options to sell the business and its assets to allow the Centre to remain operational for the longer term future.

Obviously the most high-profile project connected to the Very Light Rail Innovation Centre is the Coventry Very Light Rail project. The prototype vehicle had been at the Centre before heading to Coventry for its May/June demonstration runs. Although BCIMO has now entered administration, Coventry City Council say this will not impact their future plans.

In a statement Cllr Jim O’Boyle, Cabinet Member for Jobs, Regeneration and Climate Change, said: “We understand that the BCIMO has gone into administration, and we are disappointed for the team over in Dudley. But this will have no impact on Coventry Very Light Rail. No impact at all – it is absolutely business as usual for us.

“Following the really successful on road trial in the city centre the vehicle is now in Alcester for the next stage of development

“While work is underway on the vehicle, work has also started on the next stage, which will see us lay an 800-metre section from the railway station to the University Technology Park on Puma Way. This will enable us to show how the vehicle can run in a live traffic environment. We expect to start constructing this longer section very soon.”

Interesting to note from this statement is that after the vehicle left Coventry it did not return to Dudley after all but was moved to Alcester. Whilst there more work is understood to be taking place on it, following learnings from the initial tests.

The next stage of the Coventry project will see a longer demonstration line built which will see testing take place at some point in the future. A further article on British Trams Online will explore more details from the Council about the future.

The Very Light Rail Innovation Centre is also home to former Midland Metro T69 16 which was due to be used for various test projects.