Tracking the resurgence: careers in the rail industry

Renewed investment in the UK's rail industry is driving a demand for engineers in the sector

No trains had been made in the birthplace of locomotive manufacturing for over 30 years. But when Hitachi opened its £82m Newton Aycliffe factory in September 2015, it marked the start of a rail manufacturing renaissance not just for the north east of England, where George Stephenson set up the first company founded to build railway engines in 1823, but for the whole of Britain.

For the previous 10 years, there had been only one train builder in the UK: Bombardier in Derby. Today that company has expanded and been joined by Hitachi, assembling trains initially for the Intercity replacement programme and now for two additional British contracts. Soon to follow will be Spanish firm CAF, which is scheduled to open a new plant near Newport in South Wales in 2018. And Alstom has recently opened the country’s largest train modernisation facility in Widnes in Cheshire.