French-Japanese trains for British high-speed railway

The United Kingdom orders trains for the London-Birmingham high-speed rail link from the French consortium Alstom and Japan’s Hitachi. For 2 billion pounds, transferred over 2.3 billion euros, the two companies will supply “Europe’s fastest train”. It should be able to reach a top speed of 360 kilometers per hour.

The 54 ordered trains will run on the new high-speed line HS2, which is currently under construction. In addition, trains will also continue on the existing route to places such as Manchester, Liverpool and Glasgow.

The much-discussed high-speed rail line to central and northern England suffered another setback last month when the British government decided to scrap a planned extension to Leeds in the northeast. It has been confirmed that the Birmingham connection will also be extended to Manchester. HS2 has been dealing with ever-increasing costs for years. They are already over 100 billion pounds.

Incidentally, Siemens, which was also involved in the bidding, took legal steps. The German train maker believes the process has been unfair.