Tuesday 8 November 2016

Hitachi building £5.7bn of new trains in the UK

122 new Hitachi Class 800 trains will be built in the UK as part of a £5.7bn deal to upgrade the rolling stock on the Great Western and East Coast Main Line.

The trains will be built at their new facility in County Durham and will be put into operation over the next two years. Hitachi has already moved its global train manufacturing operation - including production of its world famous bullet train - to this facility.

The trains are hybrids meaning they will be able to use electrified and non-electrified tracks, opening up more opportunities for rail services to the forgotten parts of the country where investment in rail has been practically non-existent.

Project Fear keeps repeating its warning that Japanese companies will leave the UK when we leave the EU but the investment keeps coming in.