11:43am Tuesday 14th August 2012
I SHARE Trevor Scott’s concern (Letters, August 10) that Agility Trains, the international consortium including Hitachi, who have been awarded the contract by the coalition Government to build new mainline trains, have decided to manufacture them at Newton Aycliffe rather than York.
Long before the contract was awarded, I wrote to the Secretary of State for Transport to press the case for new trains to be built at the former York Carriageworks site. First I wrote to Andrew Adonis, the Labour Secretary of State, and then to Philip Hammond, the former Conservative Secretary of State.
After the contract was awarded, I discussed this with Andy Barr, Hitachi’s Senior Vice President who would be running Agility’s operations, to ask why York was not chosen. He told me that York was considered but they thought it was too small to build mainline trains.
I have always fought for rail jobs in York and I will continue to do so.
Hugh Bayley , MP for York Central, Holgate Road, York.
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