Over the past six years, we have spent over £2.2bn with UK suppliers, prioritising both domestic and local suppliers wherever possible.

Thanks to the successful contract win and delivery of the Intercity Express Programme (IEP) project - this has helped us to create a supply chain of over 9,000 individual suppliers. This includes over 100 suppliers directly in the North East supply chain – close to our manufacturing facility in Newton Aycliffe, County Durham.

One local supplier in County Durham, Hydram Engineering, has worked successfully with Hitachi Rail to enter the rail market, winning the contract to supply over 1,500 components and assemblies to go in to our trains.

Hydram’s employees are proud to experience the trains during both the production process and then again as passengers - seeing how the parts they are responsible for make a real difference to millions of people each year travelling on Hitachi rolling stock.

Find out more about Hydram and how collaborating with Hitachi Rail as a partner has supported business growth, whilst developing new talent through a successful apprentice scheme.

Watch the video to hear more from engineering Apprentice Holly and Managing Director, David.