Engineering news
The first of the UK's next generation of Intercity trains, which will replace the ageing of fleet of 125s currently in service has arrived from Japan.
The Hitachi made Class 800 was unloaded from a ship at Southampton in front of a committee of dignatries, including Rail minister Claire Perry.
She said: “These trains will transform rail travel for passengers travelling between many of the great towns and cities of England, Scotland and Wales; provide a massive jobs boost for Britain and deliver billions of pounds of benefits for our economy.
“We are investing record amounts building a world-class railway that provides more seats, more services and better journeys. IEP trains are a crucial part of this and it is fantastic that we are on track for the new fleet to enter service on schedule.
“The IEP is also helping to secure long-term economic growth by creating hundreds of jobs and apprenticeships at Hitachi’s new factory in County Durham, as well as thousands more jobs across the UK supply chain. I cannot wait to see the trains being manufactured in Britain and passengers using them.”
An initial 12 trains are being made in Japan, with the remaining 100 being produced at the new factory in Newton Aycliffe, County Durham.
Hitachi is making its diesel / electric hybrid Class 800 and electric Class 801 trains for the UK after winning a government tender called the Intercity Express Programme, that was originally issued in 2005. The £5.7bn deal is for the supply of 500 carriages for the East Coast line from 2018 and 369 for the Great Western line from 2017.
The Newton Aycliffe plant will employ 730 people from 2016. The Japanese company has said it plans for the Newton Aycliffe site to be a base for expansion into the European rail sector.
Critics have questioned the amount of actual manufacturing that will be conducted at Newton Aycliffe. Last year, Mick Cash general secretary of the RMT Union last year said the trains were being "shipped flat-packed to the North East, where they will be bolted back together" and that the UK was missing out on the creation of “thousands of jobs in the supply chain”.
Hitachi Rail Europe said it sees Train 800-001 as a “technology transfer vehicle,” with staff from the Newton Aycliffe factory in the UK having spent around 3,000 man-hours working alongside the staff in Kasado, building the train. It said these employees will bring their knowledge back to the North East to pass on to the UK workforce, to hone their train-building skills.
This five car pre-series train is scheduled to begin running tests, as well as serving for training of onboard staff, from April of this year. This will take place on a closed circuit at Old Dalby testing facility and in a Signal Protected Zone (SPZ) on the East Coast Main Line.
Andy Barr, chief operating officer, Hitachi Rail Europe, said: “The arrival of the first train here in the UK is a major achievement for everybody involved in building this train – our colleagues in Japan, our UK suppliers and also the team from Newton Aycliffe, who worked on this train in Japan to hone their train-building skills. Today marks a new departure in the Intercity Express Programme, as we enter the test phase and build up to the opening of our Rail Vehicle Manufacturing Facility in the autumn of this year.”
The company added that the train has been built with the help of almost 30 UK-based suppliers and more from the rest of Europe. These include DCA Design International for the interior design, Manchester-based Lucchini for the wheelsets, Lincolnshire-based Emoinox for the exhaust systems, Derby-based Dellner for the gangways and couplers, Knorr Bremse in Somerset for the brake systems and Worcester-based Arrowvale for the driver’s safety device.