The Government is facing growing controversy after awarding a £7.5 billion contract to build new trains to a consortium including a Japanese company which will carry out some of the work in its own country.
Unions and Labour MPs questioned the announcement that 12,500 jobs will be created or safeguarded through the deal to build and maintain a fleet of new "super express" trains for the Great Western and East Coast main lines, replacing existing 20 to 30-year-old high speed trains.
Agility Trains - made up of Hitachi, John Laing and Barclays - said it had drawn up a shortlist of three sites in Sheffield, Ashby de la Zouch in Leicestershire and Gateshead for a new factory, which will eventually employ up to 500 workers.
The announcement was a blow to a rival consortium bidding for the contract, which included Bombardier, the only company making trains in the UK, with a factory in Derby, employing more than 2,000 workers.
Express Rail Alliance - comprising Bombardier Transportation, Siemens, Angel Trains and Babcock & Brown - said it was "extremely disappointed" not to have been awarded the contract after spending 18 months on its bid.
Bob Laxton, Labour MP for Derby North, said the decision was "bad news" for Derby and for the rest of the UK and questioned the number of jobs said by the Government to be created or safeguarded.
He said: "This is a crass decision which gives the Japanese an opportunity of getting into the UK market. I don't believe for one moment the figure of 12,500 jobs because work will be brought into the UK from overseas."
Agility Trains said it was committed to spending 70% of the contract value in the UK, adding that Hitachi and John Laing expected to create 2,500 skilled engineering jobs in the UK, in train manufacturing, construction and maintenance. But it was confirmed that trains will be built at a Hitachi factory in Kasado, Japan, leading unions to call for urgent talks with the Government.
Bob Crow, general secretary of the Rail Maritime and Transport union, said: "The Transport Department has not answered the basic question of whether these trains will be manufactured in Britain or simply assembled here. We need to know why the order was not placed with Bombardier, which has established train-building capacity and a skilled workforce in Derby.
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"If Japan can manage to ensure the high-speed fleet that operates on its own railways are manufactured entirely at home, there is no earthly reason why Britain cannot either."
