Stuart Nathan
Features Editor
Hitachi is keen to stress that its production of the new InterCity train in County Durham is accompanied by a real and lasting commitment to the region
Last week took me further into the North than I’ve been for quite a while, into the depths of County Durham to Newton Aycliffe, the site of Hitachi Rail Europe’s manufacturing plant. The company had summoned the press and local dignitaries for the unveiling of the new InterCity Express (IEP) train, the first to be built in the UK.
Newton Aycliffe has been open for just over a year, and is the U.K.’s largest train manufacturing site. It could hardly be in a more historic location, for nearby Darlington was the site of the world’s first public railway to use steam engines; George Stephenson’s famous Locomotion engine was produced for this line in 1825. Opening the proceedings, managing director Karen Boswell commented on how proud she was to be part of bringing train manufacture back to the birthplace of the railway.
The event was well attended by the good and the great, with Secretary of State for Transport Chris Grayling, the ‘Minister for the Northern Powerhouse’ Andrew Percy, and the Japanese Ambassador to Great Britain, Koji Tsuruoka, all making speeches. County Durham is, of course, a region which voted strongly to leave the European Union, and all the speakers were conscious of the need to reassure that this decision would not affect Hitachi’s presence at Newton Aycliffe, or endanger the many thousands of jobs, both direct and indirect, that it supports. Mr Tsuruoka, in particular, spoke about how Japanese companies invest in a region, embedding themselves in the community and getting involved with local education to ensure that the skills they need will be available in the region. He referred to Nissan, Hitachi’s neighbour in Sunderland, as a “senior member of the community” and made it clear that, as far as he was concerned, Japanese investment in the north-east was here to stay.
Some readers may be wondering, as I was, exactly how one goes about unveiling a train. The answer is that you drive it along a short length of rail out of the factory to the accompaniment of dance music and let off a confetti cannon when it’s halfway out, making everyone jump. The IEP train itself is sleek and streamlined, with a blunt nose, and unsurprisingly, resembles the Hitachi-made Javelin trains that run on the HS-1 line through Kent. Having a look around the train, it certainly seemed more roomy than the Virgin InterCity class 91 that had brought me up the East Coast mainline; and while the Javelins are made in Japan, the new trains will be assembled in the UK. The factory itself is capacious and spotless; even with 300 people working on the assembly line, it seems quiet. The train shells are shipped in from southern Japan, and 50 to 60 per cent of the manufacturing is carried out at Newton Aycliffe. Karen Boswell commented that 70% of the components for the train are sourced from within a 50 mile radius of the plant.
The plant is equipped to carry out much more of the manufacturing, but after winning the contract to supply the InterCity trains Hitachi also contracted to build new commuter trains for ScotRail. The first of these is currently being built alongside the new InterCity trains, and these units are 90% manufactured in County Durham. The company did not have the resources to complete both trains to the same degree, so decided to keep the assembly of the IEP trains at the lower level. The factory takes 30 days to complete an InterCity car, with air-conditioning, motors, interiors, door systems and full electrics all installed on the line. A complete car rolls off the production line every day.
It’s noticeable talking to the staff on the factory floor how pleased they are to be working on trains. Several of them mentioned to me that the lines where Stevenson tested locomotion are mere yards away. “I’ve been working in engineering since I was 16 years old,” one supervisor told me. “I’m 50 now, and this is by far the best team I’ve ever worked with.” I got the impression that the selection procedures the company uses to recruit its staff are certainly working well.
Adjacent to the plant is the South Durham University Technical College (UTC), one of a number of such institutions that has opened around the country in the past few years. Teaching students aged 14 to 16 and 17 to 18 (in other words, through GCSE and A-level courses) the UTC has a strong focus on STEM but particularly in engineering, which is obvious from the moment you walk through its doors and are faced with the huge atrium equipped as a workroom with benches, tool cabinets, and pieces of work in various stages of completion. The Christmas tree in pride of place in the hall was noticeably rather small. UTC principal Tom Dower said that they had wanted a much taller one, but couldn’t find a stand that would support one big enough for the three-storey height of the atrium. “So next year, we’re going to run a competition to design one and make it here,” he added.
One notable difference from most schools’ design and technology departments was the presence of professional-level machine tools and metrology equipment, provided by UTC sponsors. Students even at GCSE level are taught the basics of using such equipment, and the importance of fine tolerances down to micron level in manufacturing components. They also visit a range of engineering companies in the region to get an idea of the different conditions they might be working in. One group of A-Level students has been working at Hitachi on a project designing seats.
The UTC recruits students from schools around the region; Dower said that this has caused some friction as some schools don’t appreciate students being “poached” by rival institutions. A regular programme of open days and visits help local students and their parents understand what is on offer at South Durham, although Dower admits it doesn’t suit all students, and some do not stay. Word-of-mouth is an important factor; Dower noted that the school had doubled its number of female students since September, which he ascribed in part to existing students telling their friends about it and that it was a welcoming atmosphere. One willing ambassador for the student body is 17-year-old Michael George Stephenson, a several-times-great-grandson of George Stephenson himself, who is keen to tell everybody that he wants to work at Hitachi.
Female representation is clearly important to Karen Boswell, who ran some female only recruitment events at the factory. These were successful, although women are still very much in the minority among the workforce staff were keen to tell me that their presence is welcome and valued. Some 900 people currently work directly at Newton Aycliffe, but only one shift out of a possible three is currently staffed so employment will rise as production increases.
Excellent piece, especially on the UTC’s progress. Thank Heaven’s for Lord Baker’s initiative in building a UK-wide network of UTCs – and countering Labour’s disastrous failure to support manufacturing anywhere in the UK..
Thank goodness for Japan. There is a lot of fellow feeling among Japanese people towards Britain and this is a shining example of how that can manifest at its best.
” …..Labour’s disastrous failure to support manufacturing anywhere in the UK..”
Come on guys, stop it! The very foundation of the Labour party (the name iyself is a bit of a give-away) was to ‘better the lot’ of those working in heavy industry, primarily Engineering and manufacture: No, look elsewhere for the real reason for the decline of manufacture. The shear unadulterated greed of the retail trade: and the fact that buyers for the retail consortia found much more pleasure and reward in flying to Bangkok or Beijing than taking the train to Bradford or Barnsley. Aided and abetted by the grocer’s daughter and her ilk? [that should set the argument going?]
I am delighted to see the reusrgence of manufacture: it should never have ‘left’ (sorry Marcus) in the first place. We will have to re-learn all the skills lost but Kenneth Baker’s initiatives are a first stop. It is perhaps NOT well known that his early career was in clothing production: I would have liked to be a fly on the Cabinet Room wall to hear his teeth knashing as those of his party, keen to cut their political opponants off at the knees went about their work? Lets leave it at that?
Many of the arguments put forward on energy harvesting by IDTechEx would also apply in this busy region and excellent train-manufacturing operation:
http://www.energyharvestingjournal.com/articles/10351/solar-floating-airport-with-smart-city
Michael Reld writes of the synergy between Japan and our nation. Both have long been somewhat overcrowded islands, close to a major continent and with insufficient food-growing facility and capacity and very limited raw-materials. Consequently requiring a substantial merchant ‘fleet’ and related naval protection? : able, when matters get too ‘hot’ on the main-land, to where they occasionally strayed, to retreat to their island: but believing that they had a role to keep (either via peace or war?) matters on the land-mass in their favour. Quasi military style discipline as the norm, (lower orders to be regularly put in their place -by lawyers or shoguns or Samurai.- and an all powerful ‘tsar’. Did I get it Right? [or Left?]
I am afraid that Michael Stephenson cannot claim to be several times great grandson of George Stephenson. Sorry. George did not have any grandchildren and hence there are no direct descendants. However he could be descendant from one of George’s siblings. The Robert Stephenson Trust has a lot of genealogical information on the Stephenson family and if Michael wishes to explore his relationship further he might like to contact the Trust.
The Labour Party was indeed founded to give voice to the working man, but by 1997 this had been forgotten. The Labour mantra was that ‘the knowledge economy’ would provide for all and that actual manufacturing was a thing of the past. Consequently, manufacturing declined far more rapidly under the Blair/Brown Labour administration than it did under Mrs Thatcher’s three terms (despite it being a ‘well known fact’ that it happened the other way around).
When the crash happened in 2008 Gordon Brown’s advisors told him to ‘save the banks, nothing else matters’. This was borne out when JLR were refused loans by the Government and Ratan Tata raised finance elsewhere to keep JLR afloat (thank god).
The people of the North East deserve real jobs rather than low paid jobs in warehouses or, worse still, no jobs and benefit payments. Hitachi seem to be following Nissan in providing the sort of jobs that give the North East a real future.
Technical education flourished under the Labour party with Polytechnics and Colleges of Further Education (remember the Engineering Industry Training Board courses) However the ‘Grocer’s Daughter’ (a chemist) decided to use the doctrine of ‘it doesn’t matter where it’s made as long as it’s cheaper than making it in a unionised British industry’. So started the union bashing and de-industrialisation of Britain. The banking and stockbrokering community was given favour and sadly perpetuated (they had no choice in reality) by the succeeding Labour government. It is good to observe that industry is making a comeback in the UK now but look where its being financed from . Not the Grocer’s Daughter’s flagship (failed and bailed out) British financial institutions.
Sorry to rain on the parade but the IEP train which is being trumpeted is a bizarre aberration specified by civil servants. As a product it is being inflicted on train operators on the GW and ECML rather than allowing the train operators to deploy their trains of choice. The adoption of a hybrid configuration is a nonsense as it condemns the trains to lug around heavy diesel engines and to support the required fuel logistics system rather than going for “straight” electric versions. The failure to electrify years ago lies at the feet of various governments and ministries. Allowing the latter to specify a train that may be in frontline service (which I somehow doubt) without any responsibility for its commercial and technical capability smacks of the R100/R101 airship fiasco of the 1930s. No doubt the pathetic progress in electrifying the GW will be used to justify the adoption of the concept. It would have made more sense to electrify the ECML to Inverness rather than cripple an entire fleet of trains with hybrid capability. There is also some strong evidence that the option of a push-pull loco hauled train option (more flexible?) was rejected on some flimsy evidence of the time it would take to change traction in Edinburgh.
It may seem churlish to challenge the basis of what is seen as a flagship investment and manufacturing activity but there have been strong suspicions and “noises off” that the manufacturer of the new trains were supported by intensive domestic and Japanese lobbying to allow the development of a European bridgehead.
For purely electric trains needs electricity surprisingly, Power stations are being closed down, consumption of electricity, although becoming more frugal, is increasing and where are the replacement (nuclear) power stations coming from? Renewables (for UK’s sake start developing tidal power; it’s the only constant predictable source of potential energy we have). The Tories have been in power plenty long enough to overturn the previous government’s edict to concentrate on wind farms.
Loads of Thatcherite nonsense here….. Thatcher destroyed more industry than anyone.