A TRAIN builder has shipped a specialist carriage to the region as it strengthens an £82m development.

Hitachi Rail Europe has delivered a training engine from Japan.

Bosses say the carriage will not enter service, but will be installed at South West Durham Training (SWDT), in Newton Aycliffe, County Durham.

It will be used by apprentices, as well as technical and engineering staff primed to build Hitachi’s fleet.

The Northern Echo last year revealed how SWDT had secured an agreement to become the home to a carriage similar to those Hitachi will make at its 730-job Aycliffe factory, which is due to open later this year.

Darren Cumner, Hitachi Rail Europe’s manufacturing plant manager, said the delivery was another milestone passed as it counts down the days to work starting.

He said: “This carriage is a significant step for our plans to train manufacturing staff.

“Apprentices, technicians and engineers will use this to gain knowledge of how to build trains.”

The carriage was shipped to the Port of Tyne and comes after Hitachi began delivering a Class 800 train, made for the Government’s Intercity Express Programme (IEP), which is due to arrive in March.

Running tests and onboard staff training will start in April, with the rolling stock due to be loaded on a ship in Japan’s Kobe Port later this month.

They added tests will be carried out on the UK rail network for Agility Trains, a consortium of Hitachi Rail Europe and John Laing.

Hitachi’s Aycliffe plant will make Class 800 and 801 IEP trains for Great Western Main Line services, running via Bristol to south Wales, from 2017, and East Coast Main Line trains the following year.

The first trains Hitachi will build in the region will be 122 Class 800 models, destined for the Great Western and East Coast Main Lines.

Of the 122 trains, twelve are being made at its factory in Kasado, Japan, with the remaining 110 due to be manufactured at Aycliffe.

They will be used on the IEP to modernise the UK’s ageing 40-year-old high-speed train fleet, alongside sister Class 801 trains.

It is also expected to produce 100mph next generation commuter trains for Scotland after operator Abellio last year named Hitachi its preferred bidder for 70 engines and 234 carriages.