Bombardier has won a £1bn contract to supply trains and a new depot for Crossrail.
In a press release, Transport for London (TfL) and the Department for Transport (DfT) announced that the order for 65 trains would create 1,000 jobs and 100 apprenticeships at the firm, with the large majority at their plant in Derby. Bombardier beat rivals Hitachi and CAF to secure the deal.
Boris Johnson, Mayor of London, said; “The manufacture of these new trains will not only revolutionise rail travel in London, they will deliver jobs and economic growth in their birthplace in Derby and across the UK. With a firm on board to deliver a fleet of 21st century trains and the tunnelling more than halfway complete, we’re on track to deliver a truly world-class railway for the capital”.
The trains in question will be 200 metres long and carry up to 1,500 passengers. They will include features which have now become standard on TfL’s latest heavy rolling stock (the Overground units and LU S7/S8 Stock), with air conditioning, walk-through carriages and on-train energy management systems.
Crossrail will run from Maidenhead and Heathrow in the west, through new twin-bore 21 km tunnels under central London to Shenfield and Abbey Wood in the east. It will bring an additional 1.5 million people within 45 minutes commuting distance of London’s key business districts.
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