Hitatchi Start Work On County Durham Plant

1 November 2013, 06:00 | Updated: 30 March 2016, 13:50

Work by Hitatchi to build an £82 million factory in Newton Aycliffe, bringing train building back to County Durham, starts this morning.

The Secretary of State for Transport, Patrick McLoughlin as well as The Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, Dr Vince Cable, will be at an official ceremony marking the occasion

Nearly 600 new carriages will be made in a factory to be built at Merchant Park, a site owned by Merchant Place Developments.

Construction will start in 2013 and the facility will be operational from 2015.

730 jobs will be created along with a further 200 construction jobs.

Hitachi Rail Europe has already identified over 700 potential suppliers and is moving swiftly forward with the project to deliver the trains.