Calls to protect hundreds of jobs at train factory

Hitachi’s manufacturing plant in Newton Aycliffe

LABOUR’S shadow transport secretary has warned of “massive consequences” for the North East if the future of hundreds of jobs at a train factory is not protected.

Louise Haigh accused the Government of a “total dereliction of duty” over a lack of future orders at the Hitachi Rail plant in County Durham during a visit to the region last week.

The MP had aired concerns in the House of Commons earlier in the day, saying that “despite years of representation to ministers, no solution has been found to keep their order books full to safeguard the future of 700 staff” at the factory in Newton Aycliffe.

The worries come as 3,000 jobs at French firm Alstom’s plant in Derby are reportedly at risk due to a gap in orders.

Hitachi, which along with Alstom won a contract to build trains for HS2 in 2021, wrote down the value of its Newton Aycliffe facility by £64.8 million last December.

Speaking to The Chronicle in Newcastle on Thursday, Ms Haigh urged the Government to vary Hitachi’s contract to ensure it has enough orders to safeguard its workforce.

The shadow transport secretary said: “We have this really stop-start approach to rolling stock manufacturing in this country and go through these periods of peaks of orders and then troughs, which means we go through these cycles of redundancies.

“The Government has known this has been coming. They have not filled the gap in the order book that Hitachi has been warning them about.

“I know Hitachi are just really frustrated and cannot get any answers out of the Government. It would mean potentially hundreds of job losses if they can’t fill the order book and it will also mean standing down the supply chain, so there would be massive consequences for the jobs in the wider region and economic impact.

“It would be a total dereliction of duty from the Government because they have the ability at the moment to vary their contract.

“Hitachi are not asking for public money, they are asking for that contract to be released and allowed by the Department for Transport. It is mind-boggling the secretary of state is so far refusing to do it.”

Conservative transport minister Huw Merriman said there was a “lag with the order book” as most of the train fleet does not need replacing and Sedgefield MP Paul Howell also raised concerns about the “significant short-term challenges” faced by Hitachi.

Transport secretary Mark Harper replied that he had “frequent meetings with Hitachi’s management in both the UK and Japan, and we are working very hard to deal with the situation”.

He added that Hitachi was “very competitively placed to win orders” and that he hoped to “reach a successful conclusion in the very near future”.

Ms Haigh was in Newcastle to support Labour’s North East mayoral candidate Kim McGuinness, who said: “The company has been really open about how much of an imperative it is for the Government to get on with this and make a decision, and they are dragging their heels.”

Shadow transport secretary Louise Haigh

The Tyne Tunnel

Reporter

THE Tyne Tunnel is set to partially close on weekends to allow for scheduled maintenance works to take place.

Between May 2024 and March 2025, the Northbound Tyne Tunnel will be closed for 36 weekends.

Both tunnels will remain open as usual from Monday to Friday to cause minimum disruption to users during its busiest times.

During the Northbound tunnel closure, drivers will cross the river using the Southbound tunnel which will act as bi-directional – a single lane carrying traffic north, and a single lane going south.

Closures will begin at 8pm on the Friday of each scheduled weekend with normal operation resuming on the following Monday at 6am.

The maintenance will begin on May 3 for one weekend of initial works, then recommence on June 7 and end on March 3, 2025 – with the exception of the Great North Run weekend and the three weekends across the festive period when the tunnels will remain fully open.

The operator of the tunnels, TT2, was appointed by the five local authorities that own the infrastructure to manage the toll road in 2007 – during the construction of the second tunnel, and the refurbishment of the first. This management contract is now halfway through its 30-year term and, as with all major infrastructure projects, significant periodic maintenance is required.

This is an agreed programme of works in readiness for the tunnels to be handed back to the local authorities in 2037.

Chief Executive Officer at TT2, Adrian Wallace, said: “We apologise in advance for any inconvenience caused by what is essential maintenance that will ensure that the tunnels continue to serve our region safely and efficiently for many years to come.

“The programme of maintenance has been phased as a series of weekend closures, intended to minimise disruption to travelling public when other similar scale works are being undertaken across the region.

“Weekday customers should not see any impact on travel times but traffic may be heavier than usual when travelling at peak times on Saturdays and Sundays.

“We are investing heavily in a major communications campaign to let people know about the partial closure periods in advance and help minimise disruption throughout.”