Agility - a British-led consortium comprising of John Laing, Hitachi and Barclays - will make a significant inward investment as part of this contract. They will build a new train manufacturing plant in the UK, as well as depots in Bristol, Reading, Doncaster, Leeds and west London with upgrades to existing depots throughout Great Britain.

UK Transport Secretary Geoff Hoon also announced that the Department is in advanced negotiations with National Express East Anglia to provide 120 new carriages for the Stansted Express service from London Liverpool Street to Stansted Airport. The preferred bidder for this order is Bombardier Transportation.

The Intercity Express Programme is independent of "High Speed Two", which was recently set up to explore options to serve the new Heathrow Airport transport hub, but the trains Hitachi will supply to Great Western would serve any Heathrow Hub station that is built.

Sign in with a social network: