Competition to win the £4 billion contract to build superfast trains for the HS2 rail line has been blown open by a promise from Alstom, the French industrial giant, to bring rolling stock production back to Britain if it wins the tender.
HS2 Ltd, the transport department body overseeing the £50 billion north-south rail line, has indicated that it wants the 250mph, quarter-mile-long trains capable of carrying a thousand passengers to be built, at least partially, in the UK.
Until now, it was thought that requirement had put Bombardier and Hitachi in the driving seat. Bombardier is the Canadian manufacturer that builds trains for London and its commuter routes and has high-speed trains operating in Italy.
Hitachi, a developer of Japan’s bullet trains, has built