Just as he said...

BBC News - New train deal 'protects jobs at Hitachi factory'
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgj67eg2809o

He’s filled a gap in orders.

It's a private deal, no mention of government support by any of the companies involved. Not sure how much if any actual support the government have contributed?
Great news that the short term future of the plant and the jobs having been secured though. Similarly the nuclear power stations getting short term extensions.

at least its good news and he should get some brownie points for it without any negatives for once.

The finance for the new trains is provided by ‘Angel Trains’ who will be leasing them to First Group..
No government cash involved, but a good photo op for Starmer.

Information provided by The Guardian.

Of course it's good news but nowt to do with Starmer. Every other piece of news he tags with "it's what we inherited" so why not this piece, which in fact he did inherit. But hey it is a scrap for the lefties to cling on to, punch drunk that they are.
Bless.

Nee Nor Nee Nor Nee Nor

But if they never got the order and the factory closed because of it it would be Starmer’s fault to you lot.

I hope that's the police car to take Starmer away from government.

Whats in it for him.

Nothing Starmer did helped secure the order, he and his government weren't actively involved in securing the order, the contract talks have been ongoing for many months and prior to the election. None of the 3vsignatory companies involved mention government involvement in their announcements. So no gold star for Starmer with respect to what has actually happened.
If the plant had closed then questions would rightly have been asked of government regardless of which party was in power, especially considering the huge grants and incentives from government to build the plant in Newton Aycliffe in the first place!

Hurray! Starmer has done something which he has not yet managed to make a balls up of. At least, not yet.

The only thing he did was turn up for the publicity shoot.

I see the trains are not for the Durham Coast line.
What a surprise!

Came over the Marina Bridge this morning and the Newcastle train was heading out…2 carriages…and the lead up to Xmas……Von Ryan’s express has more going for it.

All should be 4 car sets.
Investment needed here not in the south and midlands.

A woman posted this on arsebook.
This is the plan for today and has more 4 car sets than usual (just).

I remember down at Caterham in 2010 how good the trains were into London. Daresay they’ll have gone to be replaced by even better trains…..it would be great if they gave us the old ones which are light years ahead of what we have now.
Pity we ain’t nationalised now.

Heres a list who are effectively nationalised now.
Yes its all of ours.

Current
London North Eastern Railway has operated the InterCity East Coast franchise since 2018, after Virgin Trains East Coast defaulted.[5]
Northern Trains has operated the Northern franchise since 1 March 2020, after the Arriva Rail North franchise was terminated by the Department for Transport.[6]
Transport for Wales Rail has been the Welsh Government's operator of last resort since 7 February 2021, after the Wales & Borders franchise operated by KeolisAmey Wales became unviable as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.[7]
SE Trains has operated the South Eastern franchise since 17 October 2021, after the previous Govia-owned operator Southeastern (legally London & South Eastern Railway) was stripped of the franchise for not declaring £25 million of revenue.[8] The new operator has continued to use the Southeastern brand.
ScotRail, controlled by Scottish Rail Holdings for Transport Scotland, has run the ScotRail franchise since 1 April 2022, after Transport Scotland announced that Abellio ScotRail's seven-year contract was to be terminated early because of poor performance.[9]
TransPennine Trains Ltd took over from First TransPennine Express Limited on 28 May 2023 after the DfT terminated the contract on the grounds of poor service.[10][11]
Scottish Rail Holdings took over Caledonian Sleeper from incumbent operator Serco on 25 June 2023.[12]

It should be noted that the presence of 4x car sets does not necessarily mean that all 4x cars are available to passengers. More than often the additional 2x cars are locked up as the unit is merely returning to the Heaton depot following the morning or evening peak.

It will be very interesting to see what motive power is utilised on the Ashington/Blyth siding when it is partially reopened later this month - and fully reopened in the new year.

Thanks for the information.
I heard that the reason why some of the 2 hourly expresses are cancelled is due to driver training on the Ashington line. But surely when there is a full service there they will be less drivers for the other lines???

Best make the most of it while he can...2025 is all going to be about Farage,Trump and Musk riding into town..What a great team they're going to be!!.

It's actually a donkey laughing at Starmer's plans to build 1.5 million new homes over the next 5 years.

I want to know where the tradesmen, brickies, ground workers, joiners, electricians, plasters etc are coming from to build these houses ?
Builders ‘ration’ the number of private houses they build to keep the prices up, how is Starmer going to change that and with a new build 2 bedroom semi costing £160000 plus who is going to able to afford them ?

totally true and will get pelters in the next general election when this number falls short. he cannot win as if he had said a lower more achievable target would be built he,d get grief for underestimating the task in front of him.

You can blame Blair for that one…he wanted everyone to go to Uni, get ‘nice’ jobs, get into debt for the pleasure and end up flipping burgers…but not not those nasty frightful illiterate tradesmen.

Brickies and other skilled tradesmen earning a fortune nowadays. Heard some real horror stories about new builds lately, poor quality materials, laying bricks in unsuitable weather being probably the most fundamental and most damaging issue, and NHBC guarantee not worth the paper they're written on.

If you just look at Hartlepool over the last few years we have probably built well over 1000 houses and still building. It won't be long before hart village has been swallowed up along with other villages. I get your point regarding ' ration ' but that appears to have gone out the window if you pardon my expression. Others like Snowy will know better but it appears that more and more new builds in Hartlepool are being rented out and not sold to the public. A family member works for a property purchasing company in London and they buy houses like we buy a bag of chips. All that particular money comes in from wealthy individuals and companies from abroad.

what about the ones that nave been getting built for years on end and are never quite finished using everything in the book to explain the reason why.

true..and the black hats are always the other side of the site when something someone doesn't want to be seen gets filled in..

When Yuills were building the first phase of the Fens it was mostly 2 and 3 bedroom houses, now it’s a smattering of 2/3 bedroom houses with 4 bedroom detached being the norm, with the fall in the birth rate who needs a 4 bedroom house nowadays. When McLeans built the estate opposite the old Schooner every house was a 4 bedroom detached house.

the birthrate might be falling but so many people now marry more than once who have their own kids plus their new partners ones who will be stuck with them longer than they once expected.

Simple…they all need a ‘meeja’ room for their monster telly….in fact everything from mini gyms, hobby rooms etc…they probably sleep in the utility room ( washhouse)

The falling birth rate is our generations fault hence we need immigration to fill the labour shortage gap. Reliable Johnnys and the pill have a lot to answer for.
Debate.

Yeah. Us…

best decision in my life was getting the chop. best way to save the world is more blokes getting it to lower the population of the whole world. i,d go a step further and it should be made compulsory in some parts of the world.

I reckon the biggest contributor is computers and games etc. The kids never leave the foooking bedroom even when they become adults. What chance do they get to have a shag these days. When I was 21yrs I was married with a kid had a mortgage and had moved to Bury to new employment.

Think that might come back to bite ya bum.

Why would it come back to bite my bum?

why bother when now you can do all that virtually.