By Martin Walker
Phil Wilson has moved to reassure Newtonians that the long-awaited Hitachi deal is still on track.
Reports over the weekend had claimed that the number of carriages to be produced at Hitachi’s planned train-building factory in Newton Aycliffe is being cut – threatening the whole project.
But the Department for Transport (Dft) quickly and firmly rejected the report.
And just two days before he’s due to kick-off a major construction Open Day, being held by
Hitachi Rail Europe and Merchant Place Developments at the Xcel Centre on Aycliffe Business Park this Thursday, Aycliffe’s MP has also rubbished the claims.
Mr Wilson, who helped to bring Hitachi to Aycliffe, will begin proceedings at the Xcel Centre with an opening speech.
“Some people are getting anxious because of the lack of news,” Mr Wilson told Aycliffe Today this afternoon.
“So I think it’s a case of people creating stories from nothing which aren’t true, but Hitachi is very much still on track.
“We have to remember that it’s a multi-billion-pound deal, it isn’t something that can be done overnight, and we have to be patient.
“We’re all looking forward to the Open Day on Thursday and we’re hopefully getting nearer and nearer to the contract being officially signed, although it is literally just a matter of time.
“They’re hoping to start work by the end of the year, or early 2013, and the deadline we should be looking at is 2015, because that’s when the trains have to start coming off the conveyor belt, and that’s only three years away.”
A rail magazine had claimed the changes to the £4.5bn Intercity Express Programme (IEP) threatened the entire future of the assembly plant, which required a minimum of 500 coaches to be economically viable.
The figure of 434 would represent a cut of about 20 per cent on the indication, when the Dft gave the go-ahead to Hitachi, in March last year, of “at least 530 carriages” to be built.
However, a Dft spokesman said: “I can confirm the intention is still at least 530 carriages. We don’t know where Rail Magazine’s figure came from.”
The project – first mooted as long ago as 2007 – is expected to reach “financial close” later this summer, when the Dft will confirm Hitachi as the company taking forward IEP.
The company hopes to assemble many more carriages at Aycliffe by winning further work at home and abroad.
It is one of four shortlisted bidders to supply 60 trains for the £14.8bn Crossrail project, a 73-mile route to link west and east London and Europe’s largest building project, a contract to be awarded in spring 2014.
The Dft spokesman added: “Hitachi has proposed assembling the trains in a brandnew factory in Newton Aycliffe, creating at least 700 permanent jobs.
“Specialist welding will be done in Japan, as the Kasado factory is currently the only facility in the world with the right equipment.
“But Hitachi has also restated its intention to use Newton Aycliffe as its European base, which is great news for the UK supply chain and means that UK-built trains may soon be being shipped to other countries.”
Aycliffe Today will be at Thursday’s Open Day, and will bring you news and reaction from it afterwards.
