Press release -
Search Begins for High-Quality Suppliers for IEP Programme
LONDON, 11 MARCH 2009 – Agility Trains today announced that its principal suppliers, Hitachi Europe Rail Group and John Laing, will hold a series of supplier events to meet potential UK and European supply partners.
These events are designed to start a conversation about cooperating on this exciting project. Initially, Hitachi Europe Rail Group is looking to identify high-quality suppliers for Rolling Stock Equipment.
Agility Trains is asking all companies interested in being considered in this selection process to register via www.agilitytrains.com.
The events will be by invitation only, as the consortium is keen to ensure the events are managed to provide opportunities for valuable conversations. Over the next few months Agility Trains principal suppliers, Hitachi Europe Rail Group and John Laing, will contact selected registrants with further details of events that best meet their needs and, in the meantime, ask suppliers to be patient.
The Department for Transport recently announced the consortium comprising Barclays Private Equity, John Laing and Hitachi as preferred bidder for the Intercity Express Programme (IEP). Agility Trains will provide the train which is set to become the centrepiece of the UK intercity fleet once it is introduced from 2013 onwards. As part of its strong commitment to the UK rail market, Hitachi will, in stages, establish assembly and manufacturing operations in the UK that will be operated to support the delivery of the East coast fleet in 2015.
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About Hitachi Rail Europe Ltd.
Hitachi Rail Europe Ltd., is a wholly owned subsidiary of Hitachi Europe, Ltd. and is headquartered in London, UK.
Hitachi Rail Europe is a total railway system supplier offering rolling stock, traction equipment, signalling, traffic management systems, and maintenance depots.
Hitachi draws on many years of experience as a leading supplier of high-speed trains such as the Shinkansen (bullet train) for the Japanese and international markets. In Europe, Hitachi Rail Europe’s first rolling stock contract was to deliver a fleet of 29 Class 395 trains, the first domestic high-speed train in the UK, which are maintained at Hitachi’s state of the art depot in Ashford, Kent. As part of the British Department for Transport’s Intercity Express Programme, Hitachi Rail Europe will replace the UK’s ageing fleet of Intercity trains, and will establish a new rolling stock manufacturing facility in the UK for this purpose. The trains will be maintained and services in a number of new maintenance
depots along the Great Western Main Line and the East Coast Main Line.
For more information about the company, please visit: www.Hitachirail-eu.com .