HUNDREDS of new jobs are on the way, with the North East set to become a European centre of train building.
Transport Secretary Philip Hammond yesterday confirmed the Government is moving ahead with a £4.5bn contract with Japanese firm Hitachi to build a fleet of new trains in County Durham after a lengthy review of the plans.
He said 500-plus permanent jobs would be based at Hitachi’s new European assembly and manufacturing plant in Newton Aycliffe, with thousands more created in the supply chain.
Trains will begin rolling off the production line in 2016 and run on the East Coast and Great Western Main Lines – although the project has been scaled back from plans put forward by the last Labour Government.
Up to 1,400 coaches were planned under the original £7.5bn scheme, with trains being delivered from 2013.
Under the revised deal, some 530 carriages will now be built with 2,500 more peak-time seats every day on the East Coast Main Line. An extra new train will run in both directions between London and Newcastle every hour. The news will spark hopes that Hitachi will emulate the success of the region’s car industry, which was created after Japanese firm Nissan built a plant in Sunderland.
TUC regional secretary Kevin Rowan said the news was an “incredible boost” for communities hard hit by the recession and public spending cuts. Mr Hammond confirmed the Agility Trains consortium led by Hitachi was the preferred bidder for the £4.5bn Intercity Express Programme (IEP).
Under a 30-year deal, it will produce and maintain the new fleet of bi-mode trains that can use diesel or electric power – with the consortium only paid when trains are available. The contract is formally set to be signed in December.
The Transport Secretary said: “We aim to reach financial close by the end of the year. This is a deal that’s large and complex and it was suspended a year ago.
“We now have to restart the process of moving towards financial close. They have to line up their financing.
“So there are a few steps to go through yet, but I think everyone is confident that for a company of the size and strength of Hitachi, these are not problems, these are just processes to go through.”
The Japanese Government has also been in regular touch with British ministers to press the case for the plant.
Northern TUC regional secretary, Kevin Rowan said there would be around 9,000 jobs in the wider supply chain.
He added: “This is bringing train manufacturing home, where it all began.
“What we all need to do now is to make sure that all of the right support in developing skills of future workers and the infrastructure around Newton Aycliffe up to the levels they need to be to enable Hitachi to hit the ground running and build on a tremendous opportunity for the North East.”
Business Secretary Vince Cable also announced his department would be offering conditional funding to Hitachi to support a new manufacturing and assembly centre. Dr Cable said: “Following the announcement last week of the sale of the Redcar steelmaking plant to SSI from Thailand, this shows that the North East and the UK is attractive to inward investors.”
