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£4.5bn Hitachi deal to bring 500 jobs to County Durham

4:30pm Tuesday 1st March 2011 in Back On Track Photograph of the Author By Joe Willis, Regional chief reporter

An image of the new generation of high speed trains Hitachi will build in Newton Aycliffe An image of the new generation of high speed trains Hitachi will build in Newton Aycliffe

THE Government has announced a £4.5bn train-building deal which will bring 500 jobs to the North-East.

Transport Minister Philip Hammond has given the go-ahead to the Intercity Express Programme - a project to deliver a new generation of high-speed trains.

He said he was proceeding with the Hitachi-led Agility Trains consortium to fulfil the contract.

The Japanese company just needs to prove it has all the financing in place to secure the deal.

Mr Hammond said he was "confident" that financing will not stand in Hitachi's way.

The deal will see the company build a fleet of bi-mode diesel trains with the capability of running on electric or diesel.

Mr Hammond said Hitachi had pledged to build a huge assembly plant at Newton Aycliffe

A separate announcement is expected from Vince Cable's Department for Business, Innovation and Skills explaining how the Government will assist with the financing of the County Durham plant.

The Northern Echo understands Hitachi is likely to start work on the site as early as next year, with the first engine completed by 2016.

Full story, reaction, background and analysis in tomorrow's Northern Echo

Comments(28)

Dante says...
5:15pm Tue 1 Mar 11

Then I hope that the trains are better than the hitachi VCRs and power tolls I've had the misfortune to use over the years.

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Dean M says...
6:04pm Tue 1 Mar 11

Yeah, my flat screen TV isn't that good quality either. Although my first VCR (top loader - remember them?)was Hitachi and it lasted for about 10 years.

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Dean M says...
6:06pm Tue 1 Mar 11

This is fantastic news though, as Nick says.

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pilchard says...
7:06pm Tue 1 Mar 11

Fantastic news for the county :)

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greenfinger says...
7:24pm Tue 1 Mar 11

excellent news for the area.

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Lindyloo321 says...
10:27pm Tue 1 Mar 11

Absolutely fantastic news!! Newton Aycliffe has waited a very long time for this. Congratulations to Phil Wilson, our MP, for his hard work behind the scenes, to push this forward.

At last, some new jobs, which will mitigate the pain of job losses in this area.

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Dean M says...
10:41pm Tue 1 Mar 11

And thanks to Conservative Philip Hammond too, eh Lindyloo? For making the decision in our favour.

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Jolly Roger says...
10:55pm Tue 1 Mar 11

Well it makes a change that Mr Wilson has done something for the North East, after he voted to get rid of many post offices in the area.

Some people have short memories, at least the Conservatives have given us hope, after all the factories shut around the area in recent years whilst Lbour been in power.

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spragger says...
11:21pm Tue 1 Mar 11

This is excellent news and just after the steel news as well
This is what the NE wants, not all those mickey mouse state jobs that we could not afford and delivered little.

The NE needs to be THE place for private investment

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Railrunner says...
2:48am Wed 2 Mar 11

Sorry to rain on your parade, but while this MAY see UP TO 500 jobs in your area, it will possibly cost as many, if not more highly skilled jobs elsewhere. These are the wrong trains. Overweight, over priced and not wanted by the people who will have to operate them. All this will do in the long run is destroy the factories in Derby and Stafford where the alternative trains and traction packages could have been built, and Loughborough where the locomotives would have been built to haul proper electric trains on the non-electrified stretches. The Japs will pull out as soon as the Govt. Support stops at the end of the 800 odd coaches being built. Hopefully for the rail industry as a whole, the breach of the bidding processes by Hitachi will see the competition appeal under EU legislation that could see proper electric trains ordered at lower cost in both taxpayers money and jobs, and this electric/diesel hybrid inefficient train dumped. All this stupid design will do is end up seeing lines closed as it will be way too expensive to maintain in the long run when compared to proper lightweight modern and reliable electric trains which we are perfectly able to build already without Hitachi. Celebrate for now if you want, but these are the wrong trains for a whole host of reasons and many of us within the industry are looking at the legal ramifications of this grubby deal which has breached EU procurement rules.

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andi_darlo says...
7:59am Wed 2 Mar 11

well sounds like some one has a case of the sour grapes ! so big suprise some southerners think we up north shouldnt get any new investment and the procurement process which originally deemed the Hitachi Bid as preffered has in some way been flawed and that all other manufacturers will be proceeding with leagal intent to make sure this doesnt go ahead ? well big shock and i wouldnt be suprised if your fancy courts rule in favour the entire thing is shelved a new procurement process is announced and Hitachi pulls out, we end up with no new Intercity's for 20 years while the legal process and new procurement process is completed eventually being part-built in Derby by bombardier for Millions more than the original cost with a design not too dissimilar to that of the current Hitachi intended model ! Give your Head A Shake you Pillocks ! try and see which will benefit the country in the long run ! Jobs are needed NOW trains need updating NOW Hitachi has been approved to do it NOW so lets get on with it ! Well done Phil and everyone behind the campaign to bring train building back to where it all began THE NORTH EAST !!!

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Withnail Lefty says...
8:17am Wed 2 Mar 11

As a life long Labour supporter I have to swallow my pride and give credit where due.
Well done the Tories for bringing both Nissan and now Hitachi to the Northeast.
Sad to admit they have created more jobs in this region than my own party.
Still wont win in the Northeast at election time though ha ha.

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David Lacey says...
8:44am Wed 2 Mar 11

Railrunner
What makes you think that the alternative packages would have been constructed in the UK? Remind us where the Pendolinos were built will you? Or the Eurostars?
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This bi-modal approach in novel but not new and will enable Hitachi to use its new Aycliffe factory to supply contracts won across Europe. they are not stupid - that is the ultimate prize for them.
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And the new trains will replace ancient HSTs, wiht the newer class 91s being refurbished and good for another 20 years use at least.
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And don't forget that the second piece of rail news released yesterday was the electrification of the Great Western route from Paddington to Cardiff. This is where the first of the Hitachis will run and be able to proceed from Cardiff to Swansea using diesel traction.
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Finally to those who have concerns about Hitachi trains, just take a look at their Javelins that run on HS1 to St Pancras. Fabulous machines!

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Railrunner says...
8:49am Wed 2 Mar 11

No not sour grapes, simple engineering facts.
1. The trains are way overweight having both diesel and electric traction packages.
2. The cost of diesel has risen massively over the last 4 years to the rail industry. Because these overpriced trains will cost so much to operate we cannot afford to electrify more lines and use trains that are pure electrics, weigh 15-20 tons less per coach and use a secure energy source.
3. Hitachi cheated in the procurement process. While the competition was not allowed to alter the specification, Hitachi was.
4. The competing designs, both of them, were lighter, faster, used less energy and offered much lower whole life costs. They too would have been built in the UK and much higher value jobs secured. This "flat-pack" factory for Hitachi will simply be an assembly plant for kits. The real technology and high value items will be made in Japan.
5. This train has to last 40 years, it is of national importance to all regions of the UK and the short term prospect of a few hundred temporary jobs against the long term future of thousands of rail workers as well as the network itself is a gamble too far.
6. I'm no southerner , I'm a Northern born and bred rail engineer. Along with the overwhelming majority of my colleagues we want a proper train designed to do a proper job as the UK designed and built HST has done. This 'political" overweight, inefficient, backwards looking design will result in rail closures. For the extra cost of this disaster we could electrify thousands of miles of extra routes and use proper electric trains with much higher UK content and built in the UK in much higher numbers. If Hitachi were building a proper electric train I wouldn't have a problem, but they are not. You are being conned!

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Railrunner says...
9:05am Wed 2 Mar 11

The Pendolino has traction packages, the big technical and expensive stuff BUILT IN THE UK!
The Eurostar belongs to a largely French owned organisation.
The competing designs were not allowed to compete fairly. One would have been built in Derby with other loco assembly work (creating more jobs than Hitachi) in Loughborough. The other would have been built in France and UK, but again creating more jobs as these would have been full build using UK sourced materials, not kits from Japan. What's being sourced in the UK for Hitachi? From the briefing we had yesterday the seat covers and plastic wall linings. The rest will come from Japan by ship and bolted together. The competing designs were 70-80% UK sourced and 100% UK built. They were cheaper to procure and maintain over the life of the train enabling more lines to be electrified and would have been one old coach replaced with one new coach. The Hitachi design is so expensive it they will only have five coaches bought for every eight HST coaches replaced. Live it up, because it will be standing room only in the North East as well as elsewhere. Also because they cannot afford to buy as many as they need HSTs will see their 60th birthday on some routes. We have now been told to prepare for another rebuild of these old trains because they will need another patch up to see 20 years more service. Fine, can anyone tell me what the cost of diesel will be in one year, let alone 20? Hitachi did not win this on technical terms, they won it on the bribe of 2500, then it was 800, now it is 500 jobs, and temporary ones at that. No long term prospects as offered by the other designs. This train might as well have been designed by Dr. Beeching because it will finish what he started.

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Railrunner says...
9:17am Wed 2 Mar 11

The class 395 javelin Trains are pure Electrics, and very heavy ones at that. I should know, I worked on them. They are nothing special. We only have to put 20 out of 29 trains into service each day, loads of slack. UK built and designed trains are much better in availability and don't forget, Hitachi were found to have cheated on their reliability returns for those trains. The journalists who discovered this were then banned from all Hitachi/DfT briefings. Oh and do you think Hitachi will sell trains in Europe where they have a good rail industry, one which is not allowed to sell trains in Japan? Get real. I'll be retired in a few years, but all those apprentices I've trained and will then be in their early 30s will be cursing this decision as jobs vanish. We want electric trains on electrified lines, not this abortion.

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David Lacey says...
10:45am Wed 2 Mar 11

Railrunner

You still haven't reminded us where the Pendolinos were built. Please do so. Actually you don't need to, because it was Italy, wasn't it? Bodies and much of the equipment were made in Italy and assembled at Washwood Heath. The same supply chain that you find objectionable in respect of the Hitachi deal. Oh - and what happens to pure electrics when the wires come down as they do frequently? They stop and have to have Thunderbird diesels attached to haul them to safety.
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The bi-modal Hitachis will be able to proceed under their own power.
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And when it comes to UK designed and built trains, setting aside the wonderful HSTs (now fitted with German engines) the last ground breaking design - our very own APT tilting train was a colossal expensive flop.
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And our huge fleet of diesel freight locomotives were built by GM in Canada because UK designs proved so unreliable.
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I am sorry that you cannot celebrate this decision which I believe was made on the basis of a valid appraisal of the alternatives.
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And yes - I do believe that the Aycliffe plant will turn out to be a huge export success.

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Crafter says...
12:22pm Wed 2 Mar 11

I think that this is great news. I can't see anything negative about it at all. Wonderful news for our skilled people.

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Railrunner says...
12:56pm Wed 2 Mar 11

The bodies of the Pendolinos were built in Italy, but the technical kit, the bits where engineering and technical jobs are created and retained were UK designed and built, and support exports to this day. The so called Bi-mode, lets call what it really is, Electro-Diesel, works well on above floor engined locomotives, not underfloor engined EDMUs. In the few places they are used the engines have to run under the wires to have the power to keep to time and to warm up before being applied purely to traction. How much expensive diesel fuel and electricity is going to be used over the next 40 years hauling the extra 15-20 tonnes per vehicle that these appalling things are going to weigh? Yes the UK has brought foreign trains before, because they worked and were efficient. What we have not done before is shafted UK industry to buy something that clearly isn't! If Hitachi were building cheaper more efficient EMUs so we could electrify more miles of track the fine, but they are not. The procurement process was rigged and clearly illegal in that competition, true competition, was not allowed. When it was proved that Hitachi's power output figures were physically impossible they were allowed to drastically change the design. Competitors who had already designs to compete were forbidden to do so. Wonderful news for your skilled people? Hitachi now saying it will support 200-semi-skilled jobs on the manufacturing side. Ikea flat pack trains, same as the stuff they export to Africa and parts of SE Asia. Terrific.
Export markets? I can just see all those European railways flocking to buy Japanese kit over their own. It makes no odds to me as I will be retiring , but I want the rail network to have a future. All these things will do is take funds away from much needed electrification projects and the network will shrink. It is a purely political train that has been adopted by the technically illiterate who care little about what happens after they leave power. It exhibits all the strategic thinking of a goldfish.

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Lindyloo321 says...
1:02pm Wed 2 Mar 11

@ Dean M. Couldn't agree more - I vote Conservative. However, this project has been tirelessly supported by Phil Wilson, who, in my opinion, has done more to raise the profile of Newton Aycliffe, than his predecessor ever did.

Regardless of the politics, and that these jobs may be seen by some, as temporary, this is the best news that Newton Aycliffe has had for many years.

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Railrunner says...
1:11pm Wed 2 Mar 11

David Lacey, de-wirements happen once every 16million train miles. they are not as common as many think. These stupid little 5 coach trains (replacing our current eight coach trains) will have to cart all that extra weight around all the time. I have worked on railways for 40 years, all of it in engineering. I spent much of the last 3 years in Japan examining not just the 395s but this thing. I work on the basis that the best kit is procured for the best job, irrespective of it's origin. I have seen first hand how this process was rigged politically to ensure Hitachi got the job. How the numbers did not stack up for the Hitachi Kw at the rail power calculations and how they were allowed to alter the design in direct contravention of the procurement process. I doubt there is anyone involved in this process with anything like my level of experience in railway engineering, project management and large scale procurement of railway vehicles. My analysis, backed by many others, formed the opinion that these so called bi-modes, were a very inefficient and expensive train and rolling electrification using pure emus and loco back up off the wires was a proven way forward. Nothing wrong with Hitachi quality, no objection to them having a factory in the UK, but they are building the wrong train and it will result, of that I'm 100% certain, in a financial disaster down the road leading to rail closures and contraction of services. The factory in Newton Aycliffe will have gone by then.

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David Lacey says...
1:50pm Wed 2 Mar 11

You will be proved wrong. But as neither of us will be alive then it will remain a point of debate. Tomorrow we see another piece of iconic British engineering in action when Deltic 55022 Royal Scots Grey hauls a special to Edinburgh from Kings Cross. Even in their heyday they were very unreliable and we are both aware of the more recent history of UK designed and built trains which is nothing to be proud of.
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There is no point in further debating this issue as we have differing opinions, both based upon a mixture of fact and conjecture.
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Time will tell who was right and who was wrong.

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adam'n'eveit says...
2:19pm Wed 2 Mar 11

It's fantastic news for Aycliffe;some other employers will have to look after their employees a bit better now won't they?

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Railrunner says...
2:27pm Wed 2 Mar 11

Oh I'll still be around, as for the Deltic, they were not unreliable, they were expensive. I worked on them at Gateshead as an apprentice and later as a production manager at York. As I've said, if Hitachi were building the right train I have no objection, but the lies peddled by them in supporting the wrong train should be challenged. They will be keeping all the best technology secure in their own factories in Japan. I've seen their "stir welding" technology in action, it's very impressive, as is their quality control generally, but that will not be coming over here.
The only thing that would change my mind is if Hitachi designed the bi-modes to be convertible to straight EMU as electrification advanced, but they told me they would not do that, very blinkered.

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Heat1969 says...
4:50pm Wed 2 Mar 11

Fantastic news not just for Newton Aycliffe but the surrounding towns too. Hopefully many of the local factories who employ temps through agencies under poor conditions will have to start treating them better or they will be looking to Hitatchi for jobs!!

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johnny_p says...
9:12pm Wed 2 Mar 11

Great news... let's build on this and show the rest of the country what we in the North East have to offer. Proper jobs for great people!

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johnny_p says...
9:12pm Wed 2 Mar 11

Great news... let's build on this and show the rest of the country what we in the North East have to offer. Proper jobs for great people!

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justdontcare says...
9:29am Thu 3 Mar 11

...proper northern grit!!

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