Merchant Place Developments has won the job to build an 拢82m train manufacturing plant for Hitachi Rail Europe in the North-east of England

The new train manufacturing plant in Newton Aycliffe, County Durham, will be Hitachi鈥檚 first train factory in Europe.

Merchant Place Developments will build and fit-out the rolling stock manufacturing plant.

Alistair Dormer, executive chairman and chief executive of Hitachi Rail Europe said: 鈥淭he close of contract with Merchant Place Development signals a new phase in Hitachi鈥檚 commitment to the British rail industry.

鈥淏y investing substantially in our train factory, we are creating employment opportunities for a large number of engineers and technicians in the North East of England, which has a strong tradition of engineering skills. We are keen to fill our order books, building trains here in the UK 鈥� for use in Britain and for exporting to continental Europe.鈥�

The factory will initially be used to build the Super Express Trains for the Great Western Main Line and the East Coast Main Line, with the potential to be used for other orders such as building Crossrail rolling stock in the facility, should Hitachi Rail Europe be the successful bidder.

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