Engineering news
Bombardier's Aventra trains will serve the Crossrail route
Derby-based Bombardier has won a £1 billion contract to supply the trains for the cross-London Crossrail project.
Bombardier, which has suffered contract disappointment in the past from overseas opposition, beat Japan's Hitachi and Spanish firm CAF to the contract.
The deal will support more than 1,000 jobs and almost 100 apprenticeships.
The contract, between Transport for London (TfL) and Bombardier, covers the supply, delivery and maintenance of 65 new trains and the construction of a maintenance depot at Old Oak Common in north-west London.
A total of 65 trains will be built in Derby, creating 340 new manufacturing jobs and supporting 500 existing roles, as well as 80 apprenticeships and 30 graduate employees. The depot deal will create 244 jobs and 16 apprenticeships. When fully operational it will support 80 jobs to maintain the new fleet of trains.
TfL will introduce the new trains from May 2017, with the fleet progressively introduced to the existing rail network in advance of services commencing through Crossrail's central section in December 2018.
Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin said: "This announcement will mean state-of-the-art trains providing quick, comfortable journeys for the millions of people Crossrail will serve. It is also great news for British manufacturing and for Derbyshire.
Each Crossrail train will be 200m long and able to carry up to 1,500 passengers. First mooted in the 1990s but then scrapped on cost grounds only to be revived in the last decade, Crossrail will boost London's rail-based capacity by 10% It will run from Maidenhead, Berkshire, connecting Heathrow, and Abbey Wood in south London, and going as to Shenfield in Essex.
At peak times, there will be up to 24 trains an hour between Paddington in west London and Whitechapel in the City of London.
The contract is a huge boost for Bombardier's Derby factory, which is celebrating its 175th anniversary this year and employs 1,600 people.
Bombardier managing director Francis Paonessa said the Crossrail work will form part of a number of events in the coming months. He said the company had spent £20 million developing the Aventra train which will be built for the Crossrail route.
"We are absolutely delighted with the news, which is a real endorsement of the hard work the team has put in."
"We have been working on the design for the past year. The train has wider gangways, is much lighter and more energy efficient," he said, adding that the train will be painted purple and black.
Paonessa added that there were 400 applications for 17 apprenticeships last year.
Bombardier lost out to Siemens of Germany in 2011 for a £1.6 billion contract for trains for the north-south cross-London Thameslink rail project.
The decision sparked controversy, with fears that train-making at Derby might end. Siemens had been in the running for the Crossrail contract but pulled out last year.
Unite national officer Julia Long said: "This is great news for the workforce at Bombardier and for Derby. After the disastrous handling of the Thameslink contract this news must come as a massive relief for the skilled men and women at Bombardier.
"Bombardier will continue to build trains, valuable jobs will be secured and young people will have a future in manufacturing through apprenticeships. This decision is a tribute to the skills and dedication of the Derbyshire workforce."