, 2009-Apr-02
Staff at Siemens’ Kings Heath depot in Northampton today hosted a ministerial visit from the Rt. Hon. Geoff Hoon MP, Secretary of State for Transport, together with key officials from the Department of Transport.
The £30 million rail depot, which opened in 2006 creating 150 jobs, is a key UK site for Siemens and is the headquarters of the company’s Rolling Stock division. Over 80 trains are maintained and serviced on site.
Steve Scrimshaw, Managing Director of Siemens Rolling Stock, commented: “We are delighted to welcome Geoff Hoon to Northampton and show him the very latest trains from Siemens to be introduced to the UK.”
Siemens has so far delivered 18 of the 37 new Class 350/2 (Desiro) trains ordered by London Midland and Porterbrook. The first units went into services as planned in December 2008, just 16 months after the order was received.
Steve continued; “Such speedy delivery and implementation is a tribute to the teams involved and in particular our dedicated train testing facility in Wildenrath (near Dusseldorf in Germany) which undertakes testing in a simulated Network Rail environment. This extensive testing, carried out before the trains arrive into the UK, ensures exceptionally speedy implementation and minimises disruption as the new fleet of trains is introduced.”
The recent delivery of new trains has enabled a cascade of units on to the Milton Keynes to East Croydon service, enabling Southern to release units to First Capital Connect and helping the new Thameslink timetable to start on time.
“This initiative was organised and completed in just five weeks and is a great example of the Department for Transport, Go Ahead Group and Siemens working in partnership to deliver better rail services for UK passengers,” concluded Steve.
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Note to Editors:
About Siemens in the UK
Siemens was established in the United Kingdom 166 years ago and employs 18,402 people in the UK. Last year’s revenues were £3.7 billion. As a leading global engineering and technology services company, Siemens provides innovative solutions to help tackle the world’s major challenges, across the key sectors of energy, industry and healthcare. Siemens has offices and factories throughout the UK, with its headquarters in Frimley, Surrey. The company’s global headquarters is in Munich, Germany. For more information, visit www.siemens.co.uk
As part of Siemens in the UK, Siemens Mobility employs around 1800 people, providing expertise and technology in rolling stock, rail infrastructure, traffic solutions and infrastructure logistics to the UK transport industry.
In Rolling Stock, Siemens Mobility provides and maintains passenger trains for First TransPennine Express, South West Trains, Heathrow Express, National Express East Anglia, Northern Trains and London Midland.
With proven capability in rail automation, Siemens Mobility has recently delivered a major re-signalling project in the Portsmouth areas, traction power upgrades across the UK and new telecommunications systems in London and the west of England. It is also developing the GSM-R cab radio solution for the entire UK rolling stock fleet. For more information on Siemens Mobility please visit www.siemens.co.uk/mobility.
For more information contact:
Laurie Waugh
PR Manager
Communications & Government Affairs
Siemens Plc
Tel: +44 (0)1276 696000
Mobile: +44 (0)7921 242074
Email: laurie.waugh@siemens.com
