Hitachi awarded extra £1.2bn Intercity train deal

Nine extra Class 800 high speed trains to enter service on East Coast Main Line from 2019

The Government has signed off a £1.2 billion contract with Hitachi to supply new high speed trains on the East Coast Main Line.

A total of 270 carriages for nine all-electric trains will be made by the Japanese firm at its new factory in Newton Aycliffe, County Durham. Hitachi's Class 800 trains will replace Intercity 225s on the East Coast Main Line.

The contract is the second tranche of trains ordered under the Government's £5.8 billion Intercity Express Programme (IEP). 

The IEP is split into two phases. The first phase, which was confirmed last summer, was for 596 carriages to run on the Great Western and East Coast Main Line to replace Intercity 125s. These trains on are expected to go into service on those lines from 2017 and 2018.

This second tranche of Class 800 series trains will run on the East Coast Main Line from 2019 to replace Intercity 125s. The Government said the new trains will boost the Line's capacity by 18%, improve reliability and cut journey times between London and Edinburgh by up to 18 minutes.

Hitachi Rail Europe's executive chairman and chief executive Alistair Dormer said: "This order is a  boost for Hitachi Rail Europe's new factory with its 730 future employees in County Durham and for the British supply chain. This order extends firm orders at the factory until the end of the decade with significant capacity remaining available for further UK and export contracts actively being pursued."

Hitachi said it is looking to use the Newton Aycliffe factory to manufacture trains for orders to be won across Europe and give the UK "another runner" in the global race to build the world's best trains.

Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin said: "This new order for Class 800 series trains will not only deliver significant benefits to passengers by further slashing journey times and bolstering capacity, but will also stimulate economic growth through improved connectivity between some of Britain's biggest cities. This is good news for rail passengers and for British manufacturing."

Hitachi's Super Express Train has two variants designated by the Office of Rail Regulation - the Class 800 is the diesel hybrid, or "bi-mode" variant and the Class 801 the electric variants.

Hitachi completed a deal earlier this year to build its Newton Aycliffe factory with development firm Merchant Place Developments. The factory is expected to be operational from 2015 with full production starting in 2016.

As well as the new factory in Newton Aycliffe, the firm is also planning to construct maintenance depots in Bristol, Swansea, west London and Doncaster, and will upgrade existing maintenance depots throughout Britain to service the class 800 series trains.

Features of the new Class 800 series:

• 5cm of additional leg room per passenger
• 97 extra seats per train
• Wifi speeds boosted three-fold
• Power sockets for every seat
• 5cm of additional height in overhead luggage racks
• Fully pressure-sealed vehicle for passenger comfort when entering tunnels at high speed
• Increased reliability with 55,000 miles per delay
• 12% energy and carbon saving per passenger per journey compared with existing electric trains