FEATURE: HITACHI


Images: Hitachi Trains


Hitachi has promised that much of the assembly work will take place in the UK, at a factory it will be building at Newton Aycliffe, County Durham. This factory is set to create 200 jobs in the construction phase and will be built over the course of the next two years, to be fully operational in 2015. The Japanese company is hoping that further orders will follow, as the factory will have the capability of producing up to 35 vehicles a week, and could employ nearly four times the initial number. Hitachi has also promised new maintenance depots in Bristol, Swansea, west London and Doncaster, and to upgrade several other depots.


Overall, it will have taken at least a dozen years between the original announcement to procure the trains and the first ones entering service. That in itself suggests that the Department needs to sharpen up its procurement procedures and there is already a debate taking place within the industry and the Department about how to make the purchase of trains simpler and easier. In the end, though, passengers will probably get a terrific ride, though given the popularity of the 125s, they will be a hard act to follow.


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