Hitachi Newton Aycliffe

In 2005, the UK Department for Transport (DfT) decided to procure new trains to replace the InterCity 125 fleet on both the Great Western Main Line and East Coast Main Line, launching the Intercity Express Programme (IEP) to this end. During June 2008, three companies, the British infrastructure specialist John Laing Group, the Japanese rolling stock manufacturer Hitachi and the British investment firm Barclays Private Equity, created the Agility Trains consortium for the purpose of jointly bidding for the contract to design, manufacture, and maintain a fleet of long-distance trains for the IEP. On 12 February 2009, the Government announced that Agility Trains had been selected as the…

The factory covers over 31.5 acres of land with a building footprint of 475,000 sq ft (44,000 m²). It can assemble a maximum of 35 vehicles a month. The site is situated close to where George Stephenson assembled Locomotion No. 1, the first locomotive to carry passengers on a public rail line.

On 3 September 2015, the factory was officially opened in the presence of Hiroaki Nakanishi (Hitachi), Patrick McLoughlin (MP), Claire Perry (MP), George Osborne (MP), David Cameron (Prime Minister of the United Kingdom) and 500 guests. The facility created 420 jobs, and aimed to employ more than 700 at maximum capacity. It was reported that it received over 16,000 job applications, in an area where the Teesside Steelworks recently closed down with a loss of 3,000 jobs. Upon its opening, no actual manufacturing operations took place at the facility; it instead assembled components that had been built elsewhere into completed trains. Within two years of opening, in excess of 1,000 employees…