OREANDA-NEWS. Hitachi Rail Europe Ltd will announce the appointment of the construction contractor to build their new state-of-the-art manufacturing plant in the North East of England. National contractor Shepherd has been appointed to build the plant with work set to start later this year.

Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills Vince Cable and Secretary of State for Transport Patrick McLoughlin are today on site in Newton Aycliffe to celebrate the appointment of the contractor for the building of a new train factory, which signals the return of train manufacturing to the North East.

The plant represents an GBP 82 million investment in manufacturing which will reinforce Britain's train manufacturing capability, raising the prospect of the UK once again competing for export orders in European markets. The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has invested GBP 4 million under the Grant for Business Investment scheme. 150 jobs will be created during the construction phase of the facility and when the factory is in full production, 730 people will be directly employed by Hitachi Rail Europe.

The first contract to be fulfilled at the plant will be the fleet of 122 Class 800 series trains for the East Coast Main Line and the Great Western Main Line as part of the Intercity Express Programme.

Hitachi Rail Europe is working with developer Merchant Place Developments (MPD), who are leading the project to build and fit out the factory. Jointly Hitachi and MPD have chosen Shepherd's Darlington office to build the plant.