Coalition mothball plans to replace Intercity 125 trains
Plans to replace Britain's ageing fleet of Intercity 125 trains have been mothballed by the Government.
Plans to replace Britain's ageing fleet of Intercity 125 trains have been mothballed by the Government.
Philip Hammond, the Transport Secretary, said the future of the £7.5bn project would now be considered along with other programs during the spending review.
With his department facing spending cuts of up to 40 per cent, there are fears that the Intercity Express Programme (IEP) could be axed completely.
With many of the 125 trains dating back to the 1970s, passengers could eventually be left using 40-year old trains on some of Britain's main railway routes linking London to South Wales and Edinburgh.
The announcement by Mr Hammond could also jeopardise as many as 12,500 jobs which the previous Government said would have been created or safeguarded by the project.
His decision follows a review of the scheme by Sir Andrew Foster which said alternatives to the IEP programme had not been considered properly.
Agility Trains, the consortium which included Hitachi and John Laing, said 70 per cent of the contract would be spent in Britain, even though the first 70 of the planned 1,400 carriages were due to have been built in Japan.
The consortium promised to build a new factory at one of three sites: Sheffield, Ashby de la Zouch in Leicestershire or Gateshead, which would eventually employ up to 500 workers.
The IEP project is one of a number of schemes inherited by the coalition whose future is now in doubt, pending the spending review.
Hundreds of carriages which were promised by Labour to ease overcrowding have been put on hold and there are now question marks over the promised electrification of the lines between London and South Wales and also Liverpool and Manchester.
The Transport Secretary confirmed that a number of major projects were now up for review because of public spending constraints.
“IEP is a complex programme which has interdependencies with several other major rail projects. As expenditure on rail projects will be re-assessed in the context of the spending review, it would not be sensible to make a decision on IEP in isolation at this time.”
A spokesman for the consortium defended the project.
"Agility Trains has confidence in the performance of our product as shown by our readiness to offer not only trains, but a guaranteed service level to our customers. The proposal provides a step-change in capacity with relatively minor expenditure on infrastructure, as well as the opportunity to bring a major manufacturing facility and state of the art technology to the UK.
"We have expressed our commitment to continue working with the Department for Transport to respond to the points in the report, and to find an affordable solution which meets the government’s objectives."
