Five firms in £3bn race to build HS2 trains . . . but not one is British!
FIVE foreign firms have been shortlisted for the £2.75billion contract to build 54 HS2 trains amid fears they could be built abroad.
Announcing the list yesterday, rail minister Paul Maynard said the contract would create ‘thousands of skilled British jobs and apprenticeships’.
But it emerged that the contract contains no binding clause forcing the winning bid- der to build the 225mph trains in Britain, even if they are designed abroad.
The companies merely have to show their plans would boost the British economy.
No British firms design and build highspeed trains from the ground up, so the bidders are France’s Alstom Transport, Canada’s Bombardier Transportation UK, Japan’s Hitachi Rail Europe, Spain’s Patentes Talgo and Germany’s Siemens.
Unions and industry experts were quick to highlight Britain’s train-building capabilities last night, and three of the five shortlisted companies have factories in the UK.
A spokesman for the manufacturing trade group EEF said: ‘UK industry has an extensive supplier base to support the manufacture of HS2 trains. It is in the interests of the taxpayer that this work is done here.’ Diana Holland, assistant general secretary of the Unite union, said: ‘The UK is home to a world- class rail manufacturing industry and supply chain.
‘We would expect our trainmaking companies, with their highly skilled workforce, to be at the head of the queue.’
The trains will be maintained in Washwood Heath, Birmingham, which is expected to create up to 500 jobs.
Some of the entries shortlisted by HS2 Ltd already have UK production lines.
Hitachi’s plant in Newton Aycliffe, County Durham, is building more than 100 trains for the Great Western and East Coast lines.
Bombardier has a manufacturing centre in Derby. It said
‘World-class rail manufacturing’
it had not decided where it would design and build the HS2 trains if it won the contract, but it was capable of doing so in Britain.
Alstom is building a train technology and manufacturing plant in Widnes, Cheshire.
Talgo plans to build a factory in the UK and has already visited potential locations in Leeds and Liverpool.
A spokesman for HS2 said: ‘Contracts cover design, build and 12 years’ maintenance.
‘ Each of the bidders is putting forward different proposals. Until we know the winner, we can’t know exactly how many jobs will be created in the UK.’