Aycliffe Today Business AT Business Issue 30 | страница 21

The magazine for Aycliffe Business Park | 21
Hitachi is
no Virgin to
milestones
Sir Richard Branson famously revealed the new Azuma
last year – it’s now being built in Newton Aycliffe and
recently enjoyed its first test run to Scotland.
Aycliffe Today Business editor
Martin Walker on the train-
building progress Hitachi
has made since its factory
opened two years ago...
It doesn’t seem two years since David
Cameron swept into Hitachi’s swanky new
factory on Aycliffe Business Park, claiming
victory for the Tories as he officially marked
the opening of the £82m facility.
It was a momentous day which will live
long in the memory for those lucky to be
there.
The factory was, in fact, years in the
making and only happened after the Labour
Party – and its man on the ground, Phil Wilson
– campaigned tirelessly with The Northern
Echo’s ‘Back On Track’ campaign, which was a
resounding success.
But after all the obstacles that had to be
overcome for Hitachi to get the factory open
for business, the milestones just keep on
coming two years on.
Sir Richard Branson officially revealed
Virgin Trains’ futuristic Hitachi-built Azuma
at King’s Cross station last year. And the
prototype enjoyed its first test run to Scotland
this summer – an inaugural run North of the
border made as part of a testing programme,
in preparation for roll out of the 65-strong
fleet on the East Coast route next year.
The eagerly-anticipated debut came as
Virgin plans to accelerate journey times
between Edinburgh and London by 22
minutes, bringing regular journey times down
to just four hours.
The fleet of Azuma’s will be built in Newton
Aycliffe, and by 2020 Hitachi Rail will have
281 trains running on some of the UK’s
busiest intercity and commuter routes. They
will include 29 Javelin HS1 trains, 122 for
the Intercity Express Programme, 36 for
GWR’s Devon and Cornwall routes, 19 for
Transpennine Express, 70 for Scotrail and five
for Hull Trains.
Hitachi now employs more than 1,000
people in Aycliffe, with 99% of those
travelling from within a 30-mile radius to get
to Aycliffe.
They include more than 50 apprentices –
three of which now have positions as team
members, four are in their third year and 47
manufacturing apprentices are continuing to
learn on the job.
Hitachi has a long, long list of more than
700 UK suppliers – more than 100 of these
(parts and services) are within a 50-mile
radius of Aycliffe, while local firms such
as Hydram and Invertec have been able to
expand due to contracts won with them.
More locally, of course, you only need to
look as far as Finley Structures, who built
the steel frame for their factory, while other
Aycliffe firms including Beaumont Grounds
Maintenance, High Impact Development
and South West Durham Training have been
working closely with them.
Hitachi’s new trains will offer a step-change
in passenger experience with more space,
seats and better on-board technology. The
trains will significantly boost capacity on
some of the country’s busiest routes.
But, perhaps more importantly for us
at least, Hitachi’s factory is helping to
employ thousands of people – more than
a thousand directly and thousands more in
the supply chain – just as the likes of Mr
Wilson, developer Geoff Hunton and Hitachi
themselves had promised all those years ago.