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The Hitachi manufacturing and assembly plant at Heighington, Newton Aycliffe was built to support the Department for Transport's "Intercity Express Programme" Link . This programme was created to procure new trains to replace the ageing InterCity 125 fleet which operates on the East Coast Main Line and Great Western Main Line.

The factory will build 866 carriages of two variants under the IEP; the electric/diesel-electric hybrid Class 800, and the electric only Class 801.

The factory will also produce commuter trains and metro trains, the first of which is the Class 385 for Scotrail. A total of 70 of these are planned to be built, consisting of forty-six 3 car and twenty-four 4 car sets. These will run in the Central Belt of Scotland from late 2017.

The 43,000m2 factory was built on a 127,500m2 greenfield site near Heighington railway station Link over a two year period, with the official opening ceremony taking place on 3 September 2015 in the presence of Hiroaki Nakanishi of Hitachi and Prime Minister David Cameron. Fittingly, the factory is a short shunt away from where Robert Stephenson assembled the world’s first passenger steam engine in 1825.

Over 900 people are employed at the factory, which also includes research and development facilities and a 1km long test track. Up to 35 vehicles can be produced there each month.