On Mrch 2nd, Juergen Meier, the CEO of Siemens, UK, wrote
Today marks a very important day for Siemens and one that I am hugely excited about. We are announcing our plans to build a new rail factory in the UK.
We have signed a long-term agreement for the lease of land in Goole, East Riding of “Yorkshire”, with a view to establishing a new state-of-the-art factory there to manufacture and commission trains.
Our plan is to start phased development of the 67-acre (equivalent to 40 football pitches) site later this year if investment conditions are met, and if we’re successful in winning major future orders.
This development, which could mean an investment of up to £200m, marks a major milestone in Siemens’ journey in the UK and will provide a huge boost to the Yorkshire economy, the North of England, and UK plc as a whole.
I am very hopeful that this investment would spark a new generation of Railway manufacturing in the region and as such become a superb example of Industrial Strategy in action; UK and local infrastructure investments, leading to local high tech industrialisation and the creation of thousands of well paid jobs and a boost to the local economy.
We have already shown to make such an Industrial Strategy work in the Humber region, where our investment to build blades for the off-shore wind sector is now creating many more opportunities and new jobs in local supply chains and helping create economic prosperity across the Humber region.
We have a long history of being a pioneer in the UK rail sector. We developed Eurostar’s new e320 train, currently the fastest high-speed train in service in the UK, and recently delivered the re-signalling of the Victoria Line, which since May 2017 has been delivering a train on the Line every 100 seconds at peak time. We are also in the process of rolling out 115 state-of-the-art Class 700 trains for Thameslink.
This new rail factory would help to expand our UK presence even further, take our UK headcount in just the transport sector to over 5000 and cement our status as a leader in the UK rail industry and manufacturing sector as a whole.
Nothing would please me more than this factory becoming an anchor for a new industry that is helping deliver a new state of the art Northern Powerhouse Railway, as it is high time that we better connect our great cities of the north.
The Northern Powerhouse is a vital element of our economic future, and I hope that with this investment we can help provide a massive economic boost and help create a new world class Northern Powerhouse Rail Industrial Revolution!
