Hitachi’s Co Durham train plant on track to open

The £83m, 32-acre site will produce 270 Intercity Express Programme carriages

Hitachi Rail Europe is to open its factory in Newton Aycliffe, County Durham, on 3 September.

The £83 million, 32-acre site will employ 730 people, and produce a total of 866 Intercity Express Programme (IEP) carriages. The factory will also produce AT200 commuter trains for the Abellio ScotRail franchise.

The IEP train, which is also known as the Super Express Train, is replacing the UK’s ageing fleet of Intercity 125s and 225s, first on the East Coast and Great Western main lines. Some 122 IEP trains, the procurement of which was initiated by the government 10 years ago, will be running on the UK network by 2020.

Hitachi is to manufacture the aluminium bodies and bogies of the carriages in Japan. They will then be fitted out and finished at the factory being built in Newton Aycliffe.

The diesel-electric, bi-mode IEP train is the first in the UK to be fitted with European Train Control Signalling (ETCS), in-cab signalling. This wireless technology replaces trackside signals and is being rolled-out to Level 2 in the UK after successful testing on the Cambrian Line. The IEP train has a designed lifetime of 30 years and is equipped to cope with ETCS to Level 3.

Meanwhile Hitachi has also said that dynamic testing of the high-speed train on the UK’s rail network “is on track and on programme”. Train 1 has successfully completed almost 8,000 miles in test operations at Network Rail’s Rail Innovation Development Centre and on the East Coast Main Line, in both diesel and electric modes.  

Initial pantograph performance and stability tests have been completed and electro-magnetic compatibility data collection in support of compatibility demonstration is under way.