Unions have branded a decision to hand a £490 million train building contract to Spain a "kick in the teeth".
Bombardier's Derby operation was reportedly bidding for the deal to provide 281 vehicles to Arriva Rail North but has lost out to rolling stock manufacturer CAF.
The Spanish company is expected to submit tenders for other UK contracts including the High Speed 2 rail link between London and the north.
Arriva said the 100mph trains will "transform" travel for passengers in the north of England and insisted the CAF contract was the best value. The new fleet of electric and diesel trains will replace the "outdated, unpopular" Pacers currently in use, the company said.
But RMT general secretary Mick Cash criticised the decision to send the contract overseas. He told The Mirror: "This is yet another kick in the teeth to train building, in the nation that gave the railways to the world.
"At a time when manufacturing jobs and the steel industry in Britain are under the cosh it is nothing short of scandalous that this contract has been sent overseas."
An Arriva spokesman told the Mirror: "CAF provided the best, value-for-money offer in response to our requirements."
Transport minister Andrew Jones said: "Thanks to our record investment more than 2,000 carriages are being built in British factories. The state of the art trains Arriva are providing will improve journeys across the North, which has suffered from worn-out rolling stock for too long."
Ukip transport spokesman Jill Seymour branded the decision "scandalous".
She said: "At a time when our manufacturing industry is reeling from large-scale job losses in the steel sector, this decision is a scandalous betrayal.
"British projects should go to British companies - our own businesses should be given support, even if they are sometimes slightly more expensive.
"No wonder unions such as the RMT are furious. This is another kick in the teeth to the nation which brought railways to the world."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel