Hitachi Newton Aycliffe

Hitachi Newton Aycliffe (also known as Newton Aycliffe Manufacturing Facility) is a railway rolling stock assembly plant owned by Hitachi Rail Europe, situated in Newton Aycliffe, County Durham, in the North East of England. The Newton Aycliffe facility was created as a result of the Agility Trains consortium being selected to produce high speed trains for the Intercity Express Programme (IEP) in 2009. During 2011, Hitachi announced its selection of the site and construction work commenced two years later. The 43,000 m2 (460,000 sq ft) factory, which was officially opened on 3 September 2015, was completed at a cost of £82 million. Initially, the facility only performed assembly, using components that were produced elsewhere to complete trains, and no actual manufacturing operations took place. However, some manufacturing activities have been performed at Newton Aycliffe for later-built trains. Originally, the factory assembled the Class 800 and Class 802 trainsets for the IEP. However, Hitachi subsequently secured further orders, such as to produce Class 385 EMUs for the Edinburgh to Glasgow Improvement Programme, Class 802s for TransPennine Express, and a fleet of 165 vehicles for East Midlands Railway. By 2020, the plant reportedly employed around 700 people, and was engaged in building the Class 803, 805, 807 and 810 trainsets. In December 2021, it was announced that the rolling stock for HS2 would be produced as a joint venture between Hitachi and Alstom, and that part of the manufacturing for this order would take place at Newtown Aycliffe. During the mid-2020s, there has been increasing speculation that, without further orders, the factory will be permanently closed before the end of the decade.