Contractors to leave Hitachi base at Newton Aycliffe
AROUND 150 contractors will cease working at Hitachi’s Newton Aycliffe factory in County Durham at the end of the year.
The manufacturer had taken them on to work on the Intercity Express Programme and ScotRail Class 385 orders.
A Hitachi spokesman said: “It was always in our plan to have a number of people on Fixed Term Contracts, to allow our business to flex according to demand. These Fixed Term Contracts were until December 31 2018. As we had two projects running concurrently, we needed this extra support.”
More than 700 staff will be retained at the site.
The news comes after the company lost the race to build the first part of Transport for London’s Deep Tube Upgrade (to Siemens). In a Joint Venture with Bombardier, Hitachi hoped to secure the deal for a minimum of 94 trains rising to 109 (and potentially 250). The Joint Venture (JV) is now legally challenging the decision.
A Hitachi source told RAIL that the TfL decision was not a factor in the job losses, and that construction was not due to start until 2022.
The decision to switch assembly of the First Hull Trains and TransPennine Express Class 802 orders to Pistoia (Italy) and Kasado (Japan) is also not a factor in the decision, according to RAIL’s source.
Hitachi is continuing to bid for new train orders, for which it would use Newton Aycliffe. It has been shortlisted for the new Nexus fleet ( RAIL 862), while it is bidding for new trains for HS2 in a JV with Bombardier.
Other deals for which it is interested in supplying new trains include the new East Midlands, Southeastern and West Coast Partnership franchises. Hitachi was also developing an offer for the next CrossCountry franchise, until that franchise competition was scrapped.