By Martin Walker
The multi-billion-pound contract which will create 500 direct jobs in Newton Aycliffe is expected to be finalised within weeks.
But MP Phil Wilson, who led the campaign to bring Hitachi to the town, has told Aycliffe Today the complex deal is a mere formality.
Hitachi has revealed that it is aiming to close the £4.5bn Intercity Express Programme (IEP) contract with the Government before the end of June.
The company said that work on the manufacturing plant in Aycliffe would begin as soon as possible after that.
The Government and Hitachi, which heads the Agility Trains consortium, were expected to sign the contract by the end of last year.
However, delays arranging bank finance and securing planning permission for depots elsewhere in the country pushed it back.
Keith Jordan, managing director of Hitachi Rail Europe, said work on IEP was continuing with a view to closing the contract within this quarter.
He told the Northern Echo: “Our team has been working hard to ensure that we are ready to begin work on the manufacturing plant as soon as possible after the contract with the Department for Transport has been signed.
“By early next year we will see the first work being done on the site.
“Hitachi is looking forward to making Newton Aycliffe the home of our new rail manufacturing plant.”
Hitachi said it was working closely with its partner, Merchant Place Developments, to prepare the County Durham site for the plant.
Our MP Phil Wilson told Aycliffe Today a number of weeks ago that he expected the deal to be signed before the summer.
In a Video Interview, answering questions from Aycliffe Today readers, Mr Wilson said: “We’re talking about a multi-billion-pound contract so there’s all sorts of things to get in place.
“But the contract is just a formality as far as I see it. I expect it to go through in a matter of weeks, maybe May time.
“I’d expect them to start building the factory towards the back end of this year, the beginning of next.
“But the deadline you’ve got to think about is 2015, because that’s when the trains have to start coming off the conveyor belt, and that’s only three years away.”
A spokesman for the Department for Transport said ministers also expected the final approval of IEP to be completed before the summer.
It is thought that the contract will create 500 jobs directly and thousands more in the supply chain.
A second Hitachi open day will be held on Thursday 28th June, at the Xcel Centre on Aycliffe Business Park.
The event will give construction firms more details about contracts up for grabs as the plant gears up to start production in 2015.